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In Classification of weak 3-groups, Qiaochu gave an excellent answer, in which, he mentioned cohomology classes $H^{4}(B^{2}\pi_{2};\pi_{3})$ can be viewed as quadratic refinement of Whitehead bracket (where $\pi_{2},\,\pi_{3}$ are (discrete) abelian groups and $B$ is delooping.) In this case, Whitehead bracket is a binary operation $\pi_{2}\times\pi_{2}\to\pi_{3}$.

He didn't point out any ref for this point there and I can't find any. So my first question is:

Q1: How to see above algebraic meaning of $H^{4}(B^{2}\pi_{2};\pi_{3})$?

I have found some ref on nLab Whitehead product, but it didn't say anything on the cohomology class (at least in an obvious way to me).

Besides, I want to ask a more general question. We know that algebraically, $H^{*}(K(G,1))$ can be modelled by group cocycles (with a suitable target). So my second question is

Q2: Is there an algebraic model for $H^{*}(K(G;n))$ for general non-negative integer $n$?

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    $\begingroup$ You should have a look at the series of papers “on the groups H(\pi,n)” by Eilenberg and MacLane. For the very first question you can also have a look at the Joyal-Street paper on braided tensor categories. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 20, 2023 at 18:06
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for the references @FernandoMuro! I will have a look. $\endgroup$
    – Ruizhi liu
    Commented Mar 20, 2023 at 18:52

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