Transgressive loop group extensions

Abstract: A central extension of the loop group of a Lie group is called transgressive, if it corresponds under transgression to a degree four class in the cohomology of the classifying space of the Lie group. Transgressive loop group extensions are those that can be explored by finite-dimensional, higher-categorical geometry over the Lie group. We show how transgressive central extensions can be characterized in a loop-group theoretical way, in terms of loop fusion and thin homotopy equivariance.