Geometry of Deligne cohomology

Abstract

It is well known that degree two Deligne cohomology groups can be identified with groups of isomorphism classes of holomorphic line bundles with connections. There is also a geometric description of degree three Deligne cohomology, due to J-L. Brylinski and P. Deligne, in terms of gerbes with connective structures and curvings. This paper gives a geometric interpretation of Deligne cohomology of all degrees, in terms of equivalence classes of higher line bundles with $k$-connections. It is also shown that the classical Abel-Jacobi isomorphism $Pic^0(X) \cong J(X)$ generalizes to the isomorphism between groups of equivalence classes of topologically trivial 1-holomorphic higher line bundles with $k$-connections and Griffiths intermediate Jacobians.