Equivariant bundle gerbes

We develop the theory of simplicial extensions for bundle gerbes and their characteristic classes with a view towards studying descent problems and equivariance for bundle gerbes. Equivariant bundle gerbes are important in the study of orbifold sigma models. We consider in detail two examples: the basic bundle gerbe on a unitary group and a string structure for a principal bundle. We show that the basic bundle gerbe is equivariant for the conjugation action and calculate its characteristic class; we show also that a string structure gives rise to a bundle gerbe which is equivariant for a natural action of the String 2-group.