Relations between quandle extensions and group extensions (Q2659123)

A quandle is an algebraic structure whose axioms are derived from the Reidemeister moves on oriented link diagrams. They were first introduced by Joyce and Matveev as an invariant for knots in \(S^3\). The knot quandle is a very strong invariant, however it is almost impossible to use this invariant in practice. Indeed, in order to understand if two knots are equivalent or not it is necessary to understand if two knot quandles are isomorphic or not, while the isomorphism problem for quandles is known to be as difficult as it gets in the sense of Borel reducibility [\textit{A. D. Brooke-Taylor} and \textit{S. K. Miller}, J. Aust. Math. Soc. 108, No. 2, 262--277 (2020; Zbl 1482.20039)]. Sometimes homomorphisms from knot quandles to simpler quandles provide useful information that helps determine whether two knot quandles are isomorphic. This potential utility leads to the necessity of studying some special classes of quandles which are comfortable to work with. One potential way of constructing quandles which are comfortable to work with is to construct these quandles from the algebraic structures which are already comfortable to work with, for example, from groups or algebras with some additional conditions. The most popular examples of quandles which came from groups follow. \begin{itemize} \item[1.] Conjugation quandle. Let \(G\) be a group, and \(n\in\mathbb{N}\) be a positive integer. The \(n\)-th conjugation quandle is the quandle \(\mathrm{Conj}_n(G)=(G,*)\), where \(x*y=y^{-n}xy^n\) for \(x,y\in G\). If \(G=\mathbb{Z}_k\), then \(\mathrm{Conj}_n(G)=T_k\) is the trivial quandle on \(k\) elements. \item[2.] Core quandle. Let \(G\) be a group. The core quandle is the quandle \(\mathrm{Core}(G)=(G,*)\), where \(x*y=yx^{-1}y\) for \(x,y\in G\). If \(G\) is abelian, then \(\mathrm{Core}(G)\) is called the Takasaki quandle [\textit{M. Takasaki}, Tôhoku Math. J. 49, 145--207 (1943; Zbl 0061.02109)]. If \(G=\mathbb{Z}_n\), then \(\mathrm{Core}(G)\) is the dihedral quandle \(\mathrm{R}_n\) on \(n\) elements. \item[3.] Alexander quandles. Let \(G\) be a group, and \(\varphi\) be an automorphism of \(G\). There are several quandles similar to each other which are called the Alexander quandle. Let us enumerate all of them. \begin{itemize} \item[(a)] \(\mathrm{Alex}_1(G,\varphi)=(G,*)\), where \(x*y=\varphi(xy^{-1})y\) for \(x,y\in G\). \item[(b)] \(\mathrm{Alex}_2(G,\varphi)=(G,*)\), where \(x*y=\varphi(y^{-1}x)y\) for \(x,y\in G\). \item[(c)] \(\mathrm{Alex}_3(G,\varphi)=(G,*)\), where \(x*y=y\varphi(xy^{-1})\) for \(x,y\in G\). \item[(d)] \(\mathrm{Alex}_4(G,\varphi)=(G,*)\), where \(x*y=y\varphi(y^{-1}x)\) for \(x,y\in G\). \end{itemize} \end{itemize} There are more constructions of quandles which come from groups (for example, \((G,A)\)-quandles, verbal quandles, verbal quandles with parameters, etc), however, despite the fact that these constructions can be very useful for solving some problems, they are not yet as popular as the constructions above. In the paper under review, the authors study the quandle \(\mathrm{Alex}_1(G,\varphi)\) in the case when \(\varphi\) is the inner automorphism induced by an element \(\zeta\in G\). This quandle is denoted by \((G,\lhd_\zeta)\), where \(\lhd_\zeta\) denotes the quandle operation. The main results of the paper under review are about relationships between group extensions of a group \(G\) and quandle extensions of the quandle \((G,\lhd_\zeta)\). One of the main results of the paper (which I find the most attractive) is the following theorem. Theorem. For a group \(G\) and an abelian group \(A\), there exists an explicit group homomorphism \(G_{gp}^2(G,A)\to G_{q}^2((G,\lhd_\zeta),A)\). In my opinion, the topic of the article is very natural in the context of studying the relations between groups and quandles built on these groups, in order to apply these quandles in knot theory.