We review in detail the Batalin–Vilkovisky formalism for Lagrangian field theories and its mathematical foundations with an emphasis on higher algebraic structures and classical field theories. In particular, we show how a field theory gives rise to an L∞‐algebra and how quasi‐isomorphisms between L∞‐algebras correspond to classical equivalences of field theories. A few experts may be familiar with parts of our discussion, however, the material is presented from the perspective of a very general notion of a gauge theory. We also make a number of new observations and present some new results. Most importantly, we discuss in great detail higher (categorified) Chern–Simons theories and give some useful shortcuts in usually rather involved computations.

We present an extended version of Riemannian geometry suitable for the description of current formulations of double field theory (DFT). This framework is based on graded manifolds and it yields extended notions of symmetries, dynamical data and constraints. In special cases, we recover general relativity with and without 1-, 2-and 3-form gauge potentials as well as DFT. We believe that our extended Riemannian geometry helps to clarify the role of various constructions in DFT. For example, it leads to a covariant form of the strong section condition. Furthermore, it should provide a useful step towards global and coordinate invariant descriptions of T-and U-duality invariant field theories.

We establish a Penrose-Ward transform yielding a bijection between holomorphic principal 2-bundles over a twistor space and non-Abelian self-dual tensor fields on six-dimensional flat space-time. Extending the twistor space to supertwistor space, we derive sets of manifestly N = (1,0) and N = (2,0) supersymmetric non-Abelian constraint equations containing the tensor multiplet. We also demonstrate how this construction leads to constraint equations for non-Abelian supersymmetric self-dual strings. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg