  In this technical note we give a purely geometric understanding of discrete
torsion, as an analogue of orbifold Wilson lines for two-form tensor field
potentials. In order to introduce discrete torsion in this context, we describe
gerbes and the description of certain type II supergravity tensor field
potentials as connections on gerbes. Discrete torsion then naturally appears in
describing the action of the orbifold group on (1-)gerbes, just as orbifold
Wilson lines appear in describing the action of the orbifold group on the gauge
bundle. Our results are not restricted to trivial gerbes -- in other words, our
description of discrete torsion applies equally well to compactifications with
nontrivial H-field strengths. We also describe a speciric program for
rigorously deriving analogues of discrete torsion for many of the other type II
tensor field potentials, and we are able to make specific conjectures for the
results.
