Aspects of non-associative structures in physics

Abstract

We summarize the emergence of non-commutative/non-associative structures in Dirac's generalization of Maxwell theory, focusing mostly on the magnetic field analogue of the non-geometric R-flux string model. The cohomological interpretation of the obstructions to associativity in terms of 3-cocycles and the use of the star product as alternative to ordinary quantization are also discussed in this context.