On Regular Courant Algebroids

Abstract

For any regular Courant algebroid, we construct a characteristic class a la Chern-Weil. This intrinsic invariant of the Courant algebroid is a degree-3 class in its naive cohomology. When the Courant algebroid is exact, it reduces to the Severa class (in H^3_{DR}(M)). On the other hand, when the Courant algebroid is a quadratic Lie algebra g, it coincides with the class of the Cartan 3-form (in H^3(g)). We also give a complete classification of regular Courant algebroids and discuss its relation to the characteristic class.