Cohomological obstructions to cleft extensions over cocommutative Hopf algebras (Q1598949)

The author extends the cohomological treatment of cleft extensions over cocommutative Hopf algebras by giving an interpretation of degree three Sweedler cohomology classes as obstructions to extensions. It is proved that every twisted action of a cocommutative Hopf algebra \(H\) on an algebra \(R\) gives rise to an obstruction, a degree three Sweedler cohomology class of \(H\) with values in the center of \(R\). The obstruction vanishes if and only if the twisted action belongs to a crossed product extension. Also, every Sweedler three-cocycle can be realized as an obstruction.