In mathematics, a Pontryagin cohomology operation is a cohomology operation taking cohomology classes in H2n(X,Z/prZ) to H2pn(X,Z/pr+1Z) for some prime numberp. When p=2 these operations were introduced by Pontryagin (1942) and were named Pontrjagin squares by Whitehead (1949) (with the term "Pontryagin square" also being used). They were generalized to arbitrary primes by Thomas (1956).
Browder, William; Thomas, E. (1962), "Axioms for the generalized Pontryagin cohomology operations", The Quarterly Journal of Mathematics, Second Series, 13 (1): 55–60, doi:10.1093/qmath/13.1.55, ISSN0033-5606, MR0140103
Pontryagin, L. (1942), "Mappings of the three-dimensional sphere into an n-dimensional complex", C. R. (Doklady) Acad. Sci. URSS, New Series, 34: 35–37, MR0008135