Ettore ALDROVANDI
(Florida State University)

Hermitian-holomorphic 2-gerbes and tame symbols

We give a definition for a hermitian structure on a 2-gerbe with abelian band on a complex analytic manifold or algebraic variety. We also have the associated notion of type $(1,0)$ connective structure, with is the analog of the Griffiths or canonical connection for a line bundle with hermitian fiber metric. We show that hermitian 2-gerbes are classified in a suitable sense by Hermitian-holomorphic Deligne cohomology groups. Such groups refine the ordinary Deligne cohomology groups and have lifts of the Tame Symbol maps which, just as in $K$-theory and ordinary Deligne cohomology, are expressed as cup-products. One example is provided by the cup-product of two line bundles $L$ and $M$ with hermitian fiber metric: for an algebraic curve (or more generally for a family of curves) it agrees with the Deligne symbol $$ for the determinant of cohomology. When both line bundles coincide with the tangent bundle equipped with a conformal metric, the symbol can be shown to agree with the Liouville action functional.

Reference:

  1. E. Aldrovandi, Hermitian-holomorphic (2)-Gerbes and tame symbols, arXiv:math.CT/0310027.
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