arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to William Messing.
We prove a version of Gauss's Lemma. It recursively constructs polynomials {c_k} for k=0,1,...,m+n, in Z[a_i,A_i,b_j,B_j] for i=0,...,m, and j=0,1,...,n, having degree at most (m+n choose m) in each of the four variable sets, such that whenever {A_i},{B_j},{C_k} are the coefficients of polynomials A(X),B(X),C(X) with C(X)=A(X)B(X) and 1 = a_0 A_0 +...+ a_m A_m = b_0 B_0 +...+ b_n B_n, then one also has 1 = c_0 C_0 +...+ c_{m+n} C_{m+n}.
We define in a global manner the notion of a connective structure for a gerbe on a space X. When the gerbe is endowed with trivializing data with respect to an open cover of X, we describe this connective structure in two separate ways, which extend from abelian to general gerbes the corresponding descriptions due to J.- L. Brylinski and N. Hitchin. We give a global definition of the 3-curvature of this connective structure as a 3-form on X with values in the Lie stack of the gauge stack of the gerbe. We also study this notion locally in terms of more traditional Lie algebra-valued 3-forms. The Bianchi identity, which the curvature of a connection on a principal bundle satisfies, is replaced here by a more elaborate equation.
We extend to a scheme-theoretic context the notion of a combinatorial differential form, due to A.Kock in the framework of synthetic differential geometry. We show that group-valued combinatorial forms on a scheme may be identified, under very general hypotheses, with traditional Lie algebra-valued differential forms, and that their Lie algebra structure can be recovered from first principles. Some basic results from differential geometry (Maurer-Cartan equation, Bianchi identity), as well as a higher analogue, are obtained by exploiting this identification.