We investigate principal bundles over a root stack. In case of dimension one, we generalize the criterion of Weil and Atiyah for a principal bundle to have an algebraic connection.
We construct and study general connections on Lie groupoids and differentiable stacks as well as on principal bundles over them using Atiyah sequences associated to transversal tangential distributions.
In this paper we introduce a notion of parallel transport for principal bundles with connections over differentiable stacks. We show that principal bundles with connections over stacks can be recovered from their parallel transport thereby extending the results of Barrett, Caetano and Picken, and Schreiber and Waldof from manifolds to stacks. In the process of proving our main result we simplify Schreiber and Waldorfs definition of a transport functor for principal bundles with connections over manifolds and provide a more direct proof of the correspondence between principal bundles with connections and transport functors.
For a strict Lie 2-group, we develop a notion of Lie 2-algebra-valued differential forms on Lie groupoids, furnishing a differential graded-commutative Lie algebra equipped with an adjoint action of the Lie 2-group and a pullback operation along Morita equivalences between Lie groupoids. Using this notion, we define connections on principal 2-bundles as Lie 2-algebra-valued 1-forms on the total space Lie groupoid of the 2-bundle, satisfying a condition in complete analogy to connections on ordinary principal bundles. We carefully treat various notions of curvature, and prove a classification result by the non-abelian differential cohomology of Breen-Messing. This provides a consistent, global perspective to higher gauge theory.
Let G be a split reductive group. We introduce the moduli problem of bundle chains parametrizing framed principal G-bundles on chains of lines. Any fan supported in a Weyl chamber determines a stability condition on bundle chains. Its moduli stack provides an equivariant toroidal compactification of G. All toric orbifolds may be thus obtained. Moreover, we get a canonical compactification of any semisimple G, which agrees with the wonderful compactification in the adjoint case, but which in other cases is an orbifold. Finally, we describe the connections with Losev-Manins spaces of weighted pointed curves and with Kauszs compactification of GL(n).
Let $mathbb{X}=[X_1rightrightarrows X_0]$ be a Lie groupoid equipped with a connection, given by a smooth distribution $mathcal{H} subset T X_1$ transversal to the fibers of the source map. Under the assumption that the distribution $mathcal{H}$ is integrable, we define a version of de Rham cohomology for the pair $(mathbb{X}, mathcal{H})$, and we study connections on principal $G$-bundles over $(mathbb{X}, mathcal{H})$ in terms of the associated Atiyah sequence of vector bundles. We also discuss associated constructions for differentiable stacks. Finally, we develop the corresponding Chern-Weil theory and describe characteristic classes of principal $G$-bundles over a pair $(mathbb{X}, mathcal{H})$.