The Galois action and cohomology of a relative homology group of Fermat Curves

For an odd prime $p$ satisfying Vandiver's conjecture, we give explicit formulae for the action of the absolute Galois group $G_{\mathbb{Q}(\zeta_p)}$ on the homology of the degree $p$ Fermat curve, building on work of Anderson. Further, we study the invariants and the first Galois cohomology group which are associated with obstructions to rational points on the Fermat curve.