A framework for higher gauge theory based on a 2-group is presented, by constructing a groupoid of connections on a manifold acted on by a 2-group of gauge transformations, following previous work by the authors where the general notion of the action of a 2-group on a category was defined. The connections are discretized, given by assignments of 2-group data to 1- and 2-cells coming from a given cell structure on the manifold, and likewise the gauge transformations are given by 2-group assignments to 0-cells. The 2-cells of the manifold are endowed with a bigon structure, matching the 2-dimensional algebra of squares which is used for calculating with 2-group data. Showing that the action of the 2-group of gauge transformations on the groupoid of connections is well-defined is the central result. The effect, on the groupoid of connections, of changing the discretization is studied, and partial results and conjectures are presented around this issue. The transformation double category that arises from the action of a 2-group on a category, as defined in previous work by the authors, is described for the case at hand, where it becomes a transtormation double groupoid. Finally, examples of the construction are given for simple choices of manifold: the circle, the 2-sphere and the torus.
A careful study of HGT along similar lines to ours was carried out by Bullivant, Calcada, Kádár, Faria Martins and Martin @cite_6 in the context of their investigation of topological phases of matter in 3+1 dimensions. They also discretize the higher connections using manifolds with an adapted cell structure, termed a 2-lattice structure. The 2-groups that they consider are finite, but this doesn't prevent a comparison with our approach without this restriction. They focus on transports along 2-disks and holonomies along 2-spheres, whereas our examples include also the circle and the torus. The gauge transformations in @cite_6 correspond to the morphisms in our category of connections and the objects of our 2-group of gauge transformations, as will be described in section below. For their purpose they do not need the higher level of gauge transformations which in our approach are given by the morphisms of the gauge 2-group, and this is the most significant difference between the two approaches. However there are also many similarities, and we will return to more detailed comparisons at appropriate points in the main text.
@cite_6
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Higher gauge theory is a higher order version of gauge theory that makes possible the definition of 2-dimensional holonomy along surfaces embedded in a manifold where a gauge 2-connection is present. In this paper, we will continue the study of Hamiltonian models for discrete higher gauge theory on a lattice decomposition of a manifold. In particular, we show that a previously proposed construction for higher lattice gauge theory is well-defined, including in particular a Hamiltonian for topological phases of matter in 3+1 dimensions. Our construction builds upon the Kitaev quantum double model, replacing the finite gauge connection with a finite gauge 2-group 2-connection. Our Hamiltonian higher lattice gauge theory model is defined on spatial manifolds of arbitrary dimension presented by slightly combinatorialised CW-decompositions (2-lattice decompositions), whose 1-cells and 2-cells carry discrete 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional holonomy data. We prove that the ground-state degeneracy of Hamiltonian higher lattice gauge theory is a topological invariant of manifolds, coinciding with the number of homotopy classes of maps from the manifold to the classifying space of the underlying gauge 2-group. The operators of our Hamiltonian model are closely related to discrete 2-dimensional holonomy operators for discretised 2-connections on manifolds with a 2-lattice decomposition. We therefore address the definition of discrete 2-dimensional holonomy for surfaces embedded in 2-lattices. Several results concerning the well-definedness of discrete 2-dimensional holonomy, and its construction in a combinatorial and algebraic topological setting are presented.