Extensions of racks and quandles (Q2570222)

A rack is a set \(X\) with a binary operation \(f\) so that for any \(a,b\in X\) there is a unique \(c\in X\) with \(f(c,b)=a\) and so that for any \(a,b,c\in X\) one has \(f(f(a,b),c)=f(f(a,c),f(b,c))\). A rack is a quandle if \(f(a,a)=a\) for every \(a\in X\). Racks proved to be useful in Hopf algebra theory by work of Andruskiewitch, Graña and others. Given a rack \(X\) one defines a `trunk' \(T(X)\) associated to the rack as a certain representation in a certain generalisation of the notion of a category. Given a rack \(X\) a `rack-module' is then a `trunk-map' of the trunk \(T(X)\) to the category of abelian groups satisfying compatibility conditions. The first main theorem of the paper is the statement that the category of \(X\)-modules for a given rack \(X\) is equivalent to the category of abelian group objects over \(X\). Similar statements are proven for quandles. Finally the author defines a theory of extension of racks by means of \(2\)-cocylces and \(2\)-coboundaries, defined appropriately.