On (co)homology of 2-types and crossed modules (Q5952293)

J. H. C. Whitehead distilled the notion of a crossed module from the structural properties of the boundary map \(\partial :\pi_2(X,A)\to \pi_1A\) associated to a pair of spaces \((X,A)\). Every crossed module \(\partial:T\to G\) determines uniquely, up to homotopy equivalence, a CW-classifying space \(B(T,\partial,G)=:X\) with \(\pi_1X\cong \text{coker}(\partial)\), \(\pi_2X\cong \text{ker}(\partial)\), and \(\pi_{\geq 3}X=0\). Thus one may proceed as with groups and define the (co-)homology of the crossed module \((T,\partial,G)\) as the (co-)homology of \(B(T,\partial,G)\). Here the authors investigate the homology of crossed modules from two complimentary points of view. (1) using the Serre spectral sequence of the fibration of Postnikov stages \(P_2B(T,\partial,G)\to P_1B(T,\partial,G)\). Thus they extend earlier results of G.~Ellis on the homology of projective crossed modules in dimensions \(\leq 6\). (2) by establishing a vanishing line for a simplicial group based spectral sequence. Thus they obtain 5-term exact sequences which relate, in low dimensions, the group homology of \(T\), respectively of \(G\), to the homology of \((T,\partial,G)\).