Higher holonomies: comparing two constructions

Abstract

We compare two different constructions of higher dimensional parallel transport. On the one hand, there is the two dimensional parallel transport associated to 2-connections on 2-bundles studied by Baez-Schreiber, Faria Martins-Picken and Schreiber-Waldorf. On the other hand, there are the higher holonomies associated to flat superconnections as studied by Igusa, Block-Smith and Arias Abad-Schaetz. We first explain how by truncating the latter construction one obtains examples of the former. Then we prove that the 2-dimensional holonomies provided by the two approaches coincide.