On LA-Courant algebroids and Poisson Lie 2-algebroids

Abstract: This paper provides an alternative, much simpler, definition for Li-Bland's LA-Courant algebroids, or Poisson Lie 2-algebroids, in terms of split Lie 2-algebroids and self-dual 2-representations. This definition generalises in a precise sense the characterisation of (decomposed) double Lie algebroids via matched pairs of 2-representations. We use the known geometric examples of LA-Courant algebroids in order to provide new examples of Poisson Lie 2-algebroids, and we explain in this general context Roytenberg's equivalence of Courant algebroids with symplectic Lie 2-algebroids. We study further the core of an LA-Courant algebroid and we prove that it carries an induced degenerate Courant algebroid structure. In the nondegenerate case, this gives a new construction of a Courant algebroid from the corresponding symplectic Lie 2-algebroid. Finally we completely characterise VB-Dirac and LA-Dirac structures via simpler objects, that we compare to Li-Bland's pseudo-Dirac structures.