Higher gauge theory and its connections

The aim of the talk is to introduce some notions of higher gauge theory for a physics audience. Higher gauge theory is a generalization of standard gauge theory, where everything is raised one (or more) dimensions, e.g. the gauge potentials become anti-symmetric 2-index tensors, and the field strengths become antisymmetric 3-index tensors.

The geometric language of differential forms provides a useful framework for describing higher gauge theory. The connections in the title refer both to the mathematical term for gauge potentials and to links with notions more familiar to physicists, such as monopoles, the standard model, Wilson loops etc.