Geometric tool kit for higher spin gravity (part III): An introduction to the general theory of connections on fibre bundles

Abstract

These notes provides an introduction to a wide variety of notions of connection that appear in the contemporary mathematical literature. Besides the familiar Ehresmann connections on principal bundles and Koszul connections on vector bundles, there is a large zoo of perhaps less familiar notions, most notably Cartan connections on principal bundles and their avatars on tractor bundles, which may deserve more attention for further elucidating higher-spin interactions and symmetries. This review is motivated both by the previous (explicit or implicit) use of these notions of connection in higher-spin gravity and by their potential future applications in this context. Much of the material covered here is also relevant to advanced mathematical topics in gravity, such as the rigorous treatment of conformal geometry (which is of interest for holography) and may help fill gaps left by standard textbooks (most of which typically do not address Cartan connections, tractor calculus, and related topics).