Discrete Torsion and Gerbes I

Abstract

In this technical note we give a purely geometric understanding of discrete torsion, as an analogue of orbifold Wilson lines for two-form tensor field potentials. In order to introduce discrete torsion in this context, we describe gerbes and the description of certain type II supergravity tensor field potentials as connections on gerbes. Discrete torsion then naturally appears in describing the action of the orbifold group on (1-)gerbes, just as orbifold Wilson lines appear in describing the action of the orbifold group on the gauge bundle. Our results are not restricted to trivial gerbes -- in other words, our description of discrete torsion applies equally well to compactifications with nontrivial H-field strengths. We also describe a speciric program for rigorously deriving analogues of discrete torsion for many of the other type II tensor field potentials, and we are able to make specific conjectures for the results.