GROUPOIDS, LOOP SPACES AND QUANTIZATION OF 2-PLECTIC MANIFOLDS

Abstract

We describe the quantization of 2-plectic manifolds as they arise in the context of the quantum geometry of M-branes and non-geometric flux compactifications of closed string theory. We review the groupoid approach to quantizing Poisson manifolds in detail, and then extend it to the loop spaces of 2-plectic manifolds, which are naturally symplectic manifolds. In particular, we discuss the groupoid quantization of the loop spaces of ℝ3, 𝕋3and S3, and derive some interesting implications which match physical expectations from string theory and M-theory.