An explicit description of the second cohomology group of a quandle (Q2406018)

The paper provides a description of 2-cocycles of a finite connected quandle with values in an abelian group in terms of the cohomology of its enveloping group. The main result states that, for a finite connected quandle \(X\), the second cohomology group \(H^2(X,A)\) is isomorphic to \(A\times\mathrm{Hom}(N_0,A)\), where \(N_0\) is a stabilizer of the derived subgroup of the enveloping group of \(X\). An explicit and computationally friendly description of the isomorphism is provided. As an application, the authors calculate the second cohomology groups of some affine quandles, of the conjugation quandle of transpositions, and they recover Eisermann's formula for the cohomology groups.