Lectures on Higher Structures in M-Theory

Abstract: These are notes for four lectures on higher structures in M-theory as presented at workshops at the Erwin Schroedinger Institute and Tohoku University. The first lecture gives an overview of systems of multiple M5-branes and introduces the relevant mathematical structures underlying a local description of higher gauge theory. In the second lecture, we develop the corresponding global picture. A construction of non-abelian superconformal gauge theories in six dimensions using twistor spaces is discussed in the third lecture. The last lecture deals with the problem of higher quantization and its relation to loop space. An appendix summarizes the relation between 3-Lie algebras and Lie 2-algebras.