The caloron correspondence and higher string classes for loop groups (Q983918)

In [Commun. Math. Phys. 120, No.~2, 335--351 (1988; Zbl 0699.53094)], \textit{H.~Garland} and the first author introduced the caloron correspondence as a bijection between isomorphism classes of \(G\)-instantons on \(\mathbb R^ 3\times S^ 1\) (calorons) and \(\Omega G\)-monopoles on \(\mathbb R^ 3\), where \(\Omega G\) is the loop group of based loops in \(G\). In [Commun. Math. Phys. 243, No.~3, 541--555 (2003; Zbl 1085.53019)], the first author and \textit{D.~Stevenson} used the caloron correspondence to relate string structures on loop group bundles and the Pontryagin class of \(G\)-bundles. In particular, they calculated an explicit de Rham representative for Killingback's string class using bundle gerbes. In this paper, the authors use the caloron correspondence to define characteristic classes for \(\Omega G\)-bundles, called string classes, by transgression of characteristic classes of \(G\)-bundles, which are generalizations of the string class of Killingback to higher-dimensional cohomology.