Group coboundary Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
A group coboundary is a group cochain in the image of the preceding cochain differential. Because the differential squares to zero, every group coboundary is a group cocycle. The quotient of group cocycles by group coboundaries is group cohomology.
For an additive -module , the coboundary of a degree-zero group cochain is , a principal crossed homomorphism. For a degree-one group cochain , its two-coboundary isChanging a section in an abelian-kernel group extension changes its extension cocycle by such a two-coboundary, which explains why the extension class lies in .
Let . Part iii gives . Since division by is possible in the rational numbers,is a two-coboundary. HenceThis is a degree-two instance of the vanishing of finite-group cohomology when the group order is invertible on the coefficient module.