Abelian quandles and quandles with abelian structure group (Q2196336)

A binary algebra \(\textbf{Q}=(Q,\triangleleft)\) is called a \textit{rack} if : \begin{itemize} \item \textbf{Q} is \textit{right distributive} (i.e. for every \(a,b,c\in Q\), \((a\triangleleft b)\triangleleft c=(a\triangleleft c)\triangleleft(b\triangleleft c)\)), \item \textbf{Q} is a \textit{right quasigroup} (i.e. the equation \(x\triangleleft a=b\) has a unique solution \(x\in Q\)). \end{itemize} An \textit{idempotent} rack is called a \textit{quandle}. For example, for a group \((G,\cdot)\), the set \(G\) is a quandle under the operation of conjugation. Quandles bring together aspects of topology, abstract algebra and combinatorics. Probably, the main reason that led to the development of the theory of quandles was the discovery, independently by \textit{D. Joyce} [J. Pure Applied Algebra, 23, 37--65 (1982; Zbl 0474.57003)] and \textit{S. V. Matveev} [Math. USSR, Sb. 47, 73--83 (1984; Zbl 0523.57006); translation from Mat. Sb., Nov. Ser. 119(161), No. 1, 78--88 (1982)], of the algebra, the so-called \textit{knot quandle}, that can be naturally associated with a knot. A quandle \((Q,\triangleleft)\) is called \textit{abelian} if it satisfies for all \(a,b,c\in Q\) \[ (a\triangleleft b)\triangleleft c=(a\triangleleft c)\triangleleft b. \] For a given quandle \((Q,\triangleleft)\), its structure group \(G(Q,\triangleleft)\) is defined by \[ G(Q,\triangleleft):=\langle g_a,\; a\in Q\mid g_ag_b=g_bg_{a\triangleleft b},\; a,b\in Q\rangle. \] The authors of the paper describe all finite quandles with structure group isomorphic to the group \(\mathbb{Z}^r\), for any \(r\in \mathbb{N}\). In the first part of the paper, they present a construction of all finite abelian quandles (with a given number of orbits). This is a generalization of construction described in [\textit{V. Bardakov} and \textit{T. Nasybullov}, J. Algebra Appl. 19, No. 7, Article ID 2050136, 20 p. (2020; Zbl 1480.20141)]. Next, they describe the structure group of such quandles with respect to its (ordered) orbits. To achive the result they introduce so called \textit{parameter group} of a finite abelian quandle as a quotient of a direct product of the groups associted with the orbits. They show that the structure group of a finite abelian quandle with \(r\) orbits is a central extension of \(\mathbb{Z}^r\) by its parameter group. Further, they classify all finite quandles with abelian structure group. In particular, they prove that the structure group of a finite quandle \((Q,\triangleleft)\) is abelian if and only if the quandle \((Q,\triangleleft)\) is abelian and its parameter group is trivial (Theorem 4.2). They also conclude that for each \(r\in \mathbb{N}\) there are infinitely many finite quandles with structure group isomorphic to \(\mathbb{Z}^r\). In the second part of the paper, the authors show that the second homology group of a finite quandle with abelian structure group is torsion-free and investigate its relationship to the parameter group.