Lie group structures on symmetry groups of principal bundles

In this paper we describe how one can obtain Lie group structures on the group of (vertical) bundle automorphisms for a locally convex principal bundle P over the compact manifold M. This is done by first considering Lie group structures on the group of vertical bundle automorphisms Gau(P). Then the full automorphism group Aut(P) is considered as an extension of the open subgroup Diff(M)P of diffeomorphisms of M preserving the equivalence class of P under pull-backs, by the gauge group Gau(P). We derive explicit conditions for the extensions of these Lie group structures, show the smoothness of some natural actions and relate our results to affine Kac–Moody algebras and groups. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.