1 Introduction

A quandle (see [1], Definition 2.1) is a set equipped with a binary operation ◁
which satisfies certain conditions that generalize the conjugation operation of
groups. Quandles play an important role in defining various invariants in knot
theory.
The concept of quandles was first introduced by D. Joyce and S. V. Matveev
in 1980s ([4], [5]), and the concept of quandle module was given by N. An-
druskiewitsch and M. Grana ([6]) and N. Jackson ([7]).
Suppose that we are given a commutative ring k. When a quandle X is
connected, that is, the quandle operations on X is transitive, the category of
(left) quandle k-modules over X is equivalent to the category of (left) modules
over a certain ring, called the quandle k-algebra k RQ (X) of X (see [2]).
In this paper, we focus on the the case when k is the field of complex numbers
C, and the quandle is the dihedral quandle X = Z/3Z. The main result is the
calculation of the first extension groups of the rank one quandle modules over
the quandle C-algebra C RQ (X) of X by themselves.
The remaining of this paper is organized as follows. We will first introduce
some basic concepts such as quandles, quandle modules and quandle algebras.
For the dihedral quandle X = Z/3Z, we express the quandle algebra C RQ (X)
of X as a C-algebra A, which is a quotient algebra of a free C-algebra over some
relations in the second section.
Then we give a description of the rank one modules over A. We will see that
they depend on pairs of complex numbers (t, r) = (−1, −1) or (t, 1 − t) where
t is not 0. After that, we give two equivalent definitions of the first extension
group, and prove the equivalence between them using the section 6.7 of [3].
Finally we calculate the first extension groups of the rank one modules over
A.

2 Quandles, quandle algebras and quandle mod-

ules
Let k be a commutative ring in this section.
Definition 2.1. A quandle (X, ◁) is a set X with a binary operator ◁ such that
the following axioms hold:

Q1 For any a ∈ X, a ◁ a = a.
Q2 The map from X to itself defined by b 7→ b ◁ a is bijective for any a in X,
whose inverse is denoted by b 7→ b ◁−1 a.
Q3 For any a, b, c ∈ X, (a ◁ b) ◁ c = (a ◁ c) ◁ (b ◁ c).
Definition 2.2. A map f : X → Y between two quandles is called a homomor-
phism if f (a ◁ b) = f (a) ◁ f (b) for any a, b ∈ X.

1
Definition 2.3. Given a quandle X, we define its associated group As(X) to
be the quotient group of the free group with generators ex labeled by x ∈ X,
modulo the relations ex ey = ey ex◁y with x, y ∈ X.
We can define a right action of As(X) on X by xey = x ◁ y. The orbits of
X under this action are called connected components of X, and we say that X
is connected when this action is transitive.
Definition 2.4. For a quandle X, define a directed graph G(X) as follows.
Take the underlying set of X as the set of vertices of G(X), and add the follow-
ing labeled edges for all x, y ∈ X:
θx,y
x −−→ x ◁ y,
−1
θx,y
x ◁ y −−→ x,
ηy,x
y −−→ x ◁ y.
Next, form the free category generated by this graph, and denote it by C0 (X).
In this category we replace each HomC0 (X) (x, y) with the free k-module
k[HomC0 (X) (x, y)] and extend the composition bilinearly (by distribution law).
Call this category C1k (X). Note that the hom-sets of C1k (X) are k-modules.
Finally, let k C Q (X) be the category which is universal among categories D
along with a functor F : C1k (Q) → D such that the following morphisms are
mapped to zero morphisms under F :
−1
θx,y θx,y − idx◁y ,
−1
θx,y θx,y − idx ,
θx◁y,z θx,y − θx◁z,y◁z θx,z ,
θx◁y,z ηy,x − ηy◁z,x◁z θy,z ,
ηz,x◁y − θx◁z,y◁z ηz,x − ηy◁z,x◁z ηz,y ,
ηx,x + θx,x − idx .
Definition 2.5. Given a quandle X, a (left) quandle k-module A = (A, ϕ, ψ)
over X, is a functor A : k C Q (X) → k-mod that respects the addition of mor-
phisms and the actions of k. Denote A(x) by Ax , A(θx,y ) by ϕx,y : Ax → Ax◁y
and A(ηy,x ) by ψy,x : Ay → Ax◁y .
Definition 2.6. Given a connected quandle X, we choose a point p of X,
and define the quandle algebra k RQ (X) to be the ring Homk C Q (X) (p, p). Since
X is connected, this definition is clearly independent of the choice of p up to
non-canonical isomorphism.
The study of quandle algebras is important due to the fact that when a given
quandle X is connected, the category of quandle k-modules over X is equivalent
to the category of (left) k RQ (X)-modules. See [2] for details.
Let X be the cyclic group Z/3Z, and think of X as a quandle where the
binary operation is defined by x ◁ y := 2y − x. In this article we will focus on
quandle modules over X. In this case, C RQ (X) is given as follows.

2
Example 2.7. Let C⟨T, T −1 , R⟩ be the associative C-algebra generated by
T, T −1 , R with relations T T −1 = 1 = T −1 T .
Let A = C⟨T, T −1 , R⟩/J, where J is the ideal of C⟨T, T −1 , R⟩ generated by
elements

R2 − T RT −1 + T − T 2 ,
RT R − T + T 2 + T RT, (2.1)
2 2
T R − RT .
We still use T, T , R to represent the residue classes of T, T −1 , R in A respec-
−1

tively.
Let X be the quandle Z/3Z. The semidirect product Z ⋉ Z/3Z being
defined by the group multiplication (m, x̄)(n, ȳ) = (m + n, (−1)n x̄ + ȳ), we
∼
have an isomorphism ϕ : Z ⋉ Z/3Z − → As(X); (n, x) 7→ en−1 0 ex . Therefore
As(X) is generated by ϕ((1, 0)) and ϕ((0, 1)). We actually have an isomorphism
C Q ∼
R (X) = HomC C Q (X) (0, 0) −
→ A by

θ0,0 7→ T,
η2,1 θ0,1 7→ R.

Proof. See [2], section 6.7 for details.

3 The first extension group

In this section when we say the first extension group, we mean the first extension
group derived from the first derived functor Ext, which can be found in many
algebra textbooks such as [3], pp. 346-347.
Let X be the quandle Z/3Z, and let C RQ (X) ∼ = A where A = C⟨T, T −1 , R⟩/J
is as in the previous section.

Notation 3.1. Let M be the set of pairs (t, r) ∈ C2 such that

r 2 = r − t + t2 ,
r2 t = t − t2 − t2 r, (3.1)
t ̸= 0.
For any (t, r) ∈ M , we can make C be an A module by actions

T s = ts,
Rs = rs,
xs = xs.

for any x ∈ C ⊂ A and s ∈ C.

Denote this A-module by C(t,r) . Our goal is to determine Ext1A (C(t,r) , C(t,r) )
for any (t, r) ∈ M .

3
Proposition 3.2. M = {(−1, −1)} ∪ {(t, 1 − t) : t ∈ C∗ }.

Proof. This is obtained by direct calculation.

Definition 3.3. For any (t, r) ∈ M , define ρ(t,r) : A → C(t,r) to be the sur-
jective homomorphism of A-modules mapping 1 ∈ A to 1 ∈ C. This is also a
homomorphism of C-algebras.
Then we obtain a short exact sequence
i(t,r) ρ(t,r)
0 −→ Ker ρ(t,r) −−−→ A −−−→ C(t,r) −→ 0.

Lemma 3.4. Let B = C[T 2 , T −2 ] ⊂ A. Notice that B is in the center of A.

We have the following equalities:

A = B + BT + BR + BT R + BRT + BT RT,
Ker ρ(t,r) = B(T − t) + B(R − r) + B(T R − tr)
+ B(RT − rt) + B(T RT − t2 r) + B(T 2 − t2 )
= A(T − t) + A(R − r).
Proof. For any monomial of A, we can reduce both the number of R, as well as
the powers of each R that appear in it by the first and the second relations of
(2.1), until there is only one R left in it. Also we can shift T 2 to the left of the
monomial, so the first equality A = B + BT + BR + BT R + BRT + BT RT is
obtained.
For the second equality, we first notice that T − t, R − r, T R − tr, RT −
rt, T RT − t2 r and T 2 − t2 are all elements of Ker ρ(t,r) .
Conversely, let

x = T 2n (P1 (T 2 ) + P2 (T 2 )T + P3 (T 2 )R + P4 (T 2 )T R
+ P5 (T 2 )RT + P6 (T 2 )T RT )

be an element of Ker ρ(t,r) , where n is an integer, and Pi (T 2 ) are polynomials

in C[T 2 ], 1 ≤ i ≤ 6. Let us take an element

P (X) = P1 (X) + P2 (X)t + P3 (X)r + P4 (X)tr

+ P5 (X)rt + P6 (X)t2 r
of C[X]. Then

x = T 2n (P2 (T 2 )(T − t) + P3 (T 2 )(R − r) + P4 (T 2 )(T R − tr)

+ P5 (T 2 )(RT − rt) + P6 (T 2 )(T RT − t2 r) + P (T 2 )).
Since x is an element of Ker ρ(t,r) , P (T 2 )|T =t = 0, we therefore conclude
that P (T 2 ) ∈ C[T 2 ](T 2 − t2 ), and we have obtained the first part of the second
equality. Since T R − tr = T (R − r) + r(T − t), RT − rt = R(T − t) + t(R −

4
r), T RT − t2 r = T R(T − t) + tT (R − r) + tr(T − t), T 2 − t2 = (T + t)(T − t),
we obtain the second equality.

Lemma 3.5. A homomorphism h: Ker ρ(t,r) → C(t,r) of A-modules is deter-

mined by h(T − t) and h(R − r). In other words, the map

HomA (Ker ρ(t,r) , C(t,r) ) → C2 ;

h 7→ (h(T − t), h(R − r))
is injective.

Proof. Easy from the fact that Ker ρ(t,r) = A(T − t) + A(R − r).

Definition 3.6. For two left R-modules M and N over a ring R, an extension of
f g
M by N is a short exact sequence 0 −→ N −→E− → M −→ 0 of left R-modules.
f g f′ g′
Two extensions 0 −→ N − →E−→ M −→ 0 and 0 −→ N −→ E ′ −→ M −→ 0
of M by N are said to be equivalent if there exists an isomorphism θ : E → E ′
such that θf = f ′ , g ′ θ = g.
Clearly this defines an equivalence relation on the collection of extensions of
M by N . We denote the set of equivalence classes of extensions of M by N by
f g
E(M, N ) and the equivalence class of an extension 0 −→ N − →E− → M −→ 0
f g
by [0 −→ N −
→E−
→ M −→ 0].
Proposition 3.7. For left R-modules M and N we consider a short exact se-
i π
quence 0 −→ K → − P −→ M −→ 0 where P is projective. Then we have an
isomorphism ExtR (M, N ) ∼
1
= HomR (K, N )/Im(i∗ ) where i∗ : HomR (P, N ) →
HomR (K, N ); s 7→ si.

Proof. See [3], section 6.7 for a proof.

In the case when R = A and M = N = C(t,r) , we have a short exact sequence

i(t,r) ρ(t,r)
0 −→ Ker ρ(t,r) −−−→ A −−−→ C(t,r) −→ 0,
and it follows that

Ext1A (C(r,t) , C(r,t) ) ∼

= HomA (Ker ρ(t,r) , C(r,t) )/Im i∗(t,r) ∼
= HomA (Ker ρ(t,r) , C(r,t) )

since it is easy to see that Im (i∗(t,r) ) = 0 from the fact that for any homomor-
phism g : A → C(t,r) , g(T − t) = 0 = g(R − r).

5
 Under the assumption of Proposition 3.7, for left R-modules M and N we
i π
consider the short exact sequence 0 −→ K → − P − → M −→ 0 where P is
projective.
Define ψ : HomR (K, N )/Im (i∗ ) → E(M, N ) as follows: Let h be an element
f g
of HomR (K, N ). Define ψ(h + Im(i∗ )) = [0 −→ N − → (N ⊕ P )/I − → M −→ 0]
where I = {(−h(x), i(x)) : x ∈ K}, f : x 7→ (x, 0) + I, g : (x, y) + I 7→ π(y).

Lemma 3.8. The homomorphism ψ is invertible, whose inverse ψ −1 is defined

f g
as follows: Let [0 −→ N − →E− → M −→ 0] be an element of E(M, N ). From
the fact that P is projective, there exists r : P → E such that gr = π. Then
f g
ψ −1 ([0 −→ N −→E− → M −→ 0]) = h + Im (i∗ ) ∈ HomR (K, N )/Im (i∗ ) where
h is a homomorphism K → N such that f h = ri.

Proof. See [3], section 6.7 for details.

Theorem 3.9. As C-modules, the following hold.

(1) Ext1A (C(−1,−1) , C(−1,−1) ) = 0.

(2) Ext1A (C(t,1−t) , C(t,1−t) ) ∼

= C, for any t ∈ C∗ .
Proof. Let (t, r) ∈ M . From (2.1) we obtain the following relations in Ker ρ(t,r) :

R2 (T − t) + tR(R − r) + rt(R − r) = T (R − r) + r(T − t)

−T (T − t) − t(T − t)+T 2 (T − t) + tT (T − t) + t2 (T − t),
RT (R − r) + rR(T − t) + rt(R − r) = (T − t) − T (T − t)
−t(T − t)−T R(T − t) − tT (R − r) − tr(T − t),
T (R − r) + rT (T − t) + rt(T − t) = RT (T − t) + tR(T − t) + t2 (R − r).
2

(3.2)
For a pair (a, b) ∈ C2 , assume that there is a well-defined homomorphism
h ∈ HomA (Ker ρ(t,r) , C(t,r) ) such that h(T − t) = a, h(R − r) = b.
Applying h on both sides of each equation in (3.2), we have
 2
r − r + 2t − 3t2 2tr − t
   
a 0
= . (3.3)
r2 − 1 + 2t + 2tr 2tr + t2 b 0
When (r, t) = (−1, −1), (3.3) is equivalent to
    
−3 3 a 0
= .
0 3 b 0
   
a 0
Therefore = , and we obtain that Ext1A (C(−1,−1) , C(−1,−1) ) = 0.
b 0

6
 When t ∈ C∗ , r = 1 − t, (2.4) is equivalent to

t − 2t2 t − 2t2
    
a 0
= ,
2t − t2 2t − t2 b 0

which is equivalent to b = −a.

Now we show that for any a ∈ C, T − t 7→ a, R − r 7→ −a is indeed a well-

defined homomorphism in HomA (Kerρ(t,r) , C(t,r) ).

We construct an extension of C(t,1−t) by itself by the following:

h C(t,1−t) ⊕ A g
0 −→ C(t,1−t) −
→ −
→ C(t,1−t) −→ 0, (*)
It,a
where
It,a = {(ρ(t,1−t) (y − x)a, x(T − t) + y(R − r)) : x, y ∈ A},
h(s) = (s, 0) + It,a ,
g((s, z) + It,a ) = ρ(t,1−t) (z).
Clearly g is surjective and gh = 0.

Claim: h is injective.

Suppose that (s, 0) ∈ It,a , and there are x, y ∈ A such that ρ(t,1−t) (y − x)a =
s, x(T − t) + y(R − r) = 0.

Applying ρ(t′ ,1−t′ ) on both sides of x(T − t) + y(R − r) = 0 for any t′ ̸= t,

we have ρ(t′ ,1−t′ ) (y − x)(t − t′ ) = 0. Therefore ρ(t′ ,1−t′ ) (y − x) = 0.

Now notice that y − x as an element of A has the form T 2n P (T, R) where

n ∈ Z, P (T, R) ∈ C⟨T, R⟩. Now ρ(t′ ,1−t′ ) (y − x) = 0 is equivalent to P (T, 1 −
T )|T =t′ = 0. Therefore P (T, 1 − T ) = 0 hence P (T, 1 − T )|T =t = 0, which
implies that s = ρ(t,1−t) (y − x)a = 0. This shows that h is injective.

Claim: Ker g ⊂ Im h.

For any (s, z) + It,a ∈ Ker g, we have ρ(t,1−t) (z) = 0, and therefore z ∈
Ker ρ(t,1−t) , which is equal to A(T − t) + A(R − r) by Lemma 3.4.

Hence there exist x, y ∈ A such that z = x(T − t) + y(R − r). Then (s, z) +
It,a = (s+ρ(t,1−t) (x−y)a, 0)+It,a = h(s+ρ(t,1−t) (x−y)a), and therefore we have
shown that Ker g ⊂ Im h. Thus (*) defines an element of E(C(t,1−t) , C(t,1−t) ).
The image of (*), denoted by

h ∈ Ext1A (C(t,1−t) , C(t,1−t) ) ∼

= HomA (Kerρ(t,r) , C(t,r) )

7
under ψ −1 defined in Lemma 3.8, satisfies that h(T − t) = a, h(R − r) = −a.

Thus we have obtained that

HomA (Kerρ(t,r) , C(t,r) ) ∼

= Ext1A (C(t,1−t) , C(t,1−t) ) ∼
= C ; h 7→ h(T − t).

References
[1] Takefumi Nosaka, Quandles and Topological Pairs: Symmetry, Knots, and
Cohomology, Springer Briefs in Mathematics, 2017.
[2] Jorik Mandemaker, Various topics in rack and quandle homology, Master’s
thesis in Mathematics, Radboud University Nijmegen, 2010.
[3] Nathan Jacobson, Basic Algebra II, W. H. Freeman and Company, San
Francisco, 1980.

[4] D. Joyce, A Classifying Invariant of Knots, the Knot Quandle, J. Pure

Appl. Algebra 23 no.1, 1982.
[5] S. V. Mateev, Distributive Groupoids in Knot Theory, Mat. Sb. (N.S.) 119
no. 1, 1982.

[6] N. Andruskiewitsch, M. Grana, From Racks to Pointed Hopf Algebras, Adv.

Math. 178 no. 2, 2002.
[7] N. Jackson, Extensions of Racks and Quandles, Homology Homotopy Appl.
7 no. 1, 2005.