Gauge theory and string topology Seminar

Abstract
This is joint work with Ralph Cohen. In earlier work we gave a homotopy theoretic approach to the Chas - Sullivan theory of string topology. Here we examine the interaction of this homotopy theoretic point of view on string topology with some of the basic ideas of gauge theory, in particular the action of the gauge group of a principal bundle on spaces of connections. Using these ideas we construct a homotopy theoretic representation of this gauge group in string topology and also describe, in a precise functorial sense, how string topology provides a "linearisation" (in the sense of Goodwillie) of the gauge group.