Cycle sets are known to give non-degenerate unitary solutions of the Yang--Baxter equation and linear cycle sets are enrich
The paper establishes new relationship between cohomology, extensions and automorphisms of quandles. We derive a four term exact sequence relating quandle 1-cocycles, second quandle cohomology and certain group of automorphisms of an abelian extensio
n of quandles. A non-abelian counterpart of this sequence involving dynamical cohomology classes is also established, and some applications to lifting of quandle automorphisms are given. Viewing the construction of the conjugation, the core and the generalised Alexander quandle of a group as an adjoint functor of some appropriate functor from the category of quandles to the category of groups, we prove that these functors map extensions of groups to extensions of quandles. Finally, we construct some natural group homomorphisms from the second cohomology of a group to the second cohomology of its core and conjugation quandles.
Biquandles are algebraic objects with two binary operations whose axioms encode the generalized Reidemeister moves for virtual knots and links. These objects also provide set-theoretic solutions of the well-known Yang-Baxter equation. The first half
of this paper proposes some natural constructions of biquandles from groups and from their simpler counterparts, namely, quandles. We completely determine all words in the free group on two generators that give rise to (bi)quandle structures on all groups. We give some novel constructions of biquandles on unions and products of quandles, including what we refer as the holomorph biquandle of a quandle. These constructions give a wealth of solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation. We also show that for nice quandle coverings a biquandle structure on the base can be lifted to a biquandle structure on the covering. In the second half of the paper, we determine automorphism groups of these biquandles in terms of associated quandles showing elegant relationships between the symmetries of the underlying structures.
