Frames of Group Sets and Their Application in Bundle Theory

Abstract

We study fiber bundles where the fibers are not a group G but a free G-space with disjoint orbits. The fibers are then not torsors but disjoint unions of these; hence, we like to call them semi-torsors. Bundles of semi-torsors naturally generalize principal bundles, and we call these semi-principal bundles. These bundles admit parallel transport in the same way that principal bundles do. The main difference is that lifts may end up in another group orbit, meaning that the change cannot be described by group translations alone. The study of such effects is facilitated by defining the notion of a basis of a G-set, in analogy with a basis of a vector space. The basis elements serve as reference points for the orbits so that parallel transport amounts to reordering the basis elements and scaling them with the appropriate group elements. These two symmetries of the bases are described by a wreath product group. The notion of basis also leads to a frame bundle, which is principal and so allows for a conventional treatment. In fact, the frame bundle functor is found to be a retraction from the semi-principal bundles to the principal bundles. The theory presented provides a mathematical framework for a unified description of geometric phases and exceptional points in adiabatic quantum mechanics.