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Before asking the question I do need some notations.

  1. $G$ a (torsion-free) group, $\mathbb{Z}^{´}=\mathbb{Z}[\frac{1}{2}]$
  2. $R:= \mathbb{Z}[G]$, $R^{´}=\mathbb{Z}^{´}[G]$ group rings.
  3. $Mat_{n}(R)$ the ring of matrices of size $n\times n$, $GL_{n}(R)$ the group of invertible matrices.
  4. $h: R\rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ the augmentation ring homomorphism.

Is there a concrete example of a matrix $M$ such that:

  1. $M\in Mat_{n}(R)\cap GL_{n}(R^{´})$
  2. $h(M)\in GL_{n}(\mathbb{Z})$
  3. $M\notin GL_{n}(R)$
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  • $\begingroup$ What is $h(M)$? $h$ is defined on $R$, is not it? $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 30 at 5:43
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    $\begingroup$ @FedorPetrov $h(M)$ is applying h to each entry of the matrix. $h[(m_{i,j})]:= [h(m_{i,j})]$ $\endgroup$
    – GSM
    Commented Sep 30 at 11:11

1 Answer 1

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This is not exactly an answer to the question, but let me share this anyway. I would like to prove that for an abelian $G$ such $M$ does not exist. This follows from Kaplansky's unit conjecture for abelian groups.

Suppose $G$ is abelian, then $R$ and $R'$ are commutative. Then conditions on $M$ can be restated in terms of determinants, namely, we have that $\operatorname{det}{M}$ is an invertible element of $\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{2}\right][G]$ but not of $\mathbb{Z}[G]$, and also $\operatorname{det}{h(M)}=\pm1$. So, $\operatorname{det}{M}$ is an invertible element of $\mathbb{Q}[G]\supset \mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{2}\right][G]$, then by Kaplansky's unit conjecture, which is in general false but true for abelian groups, we have $\operatorname{det}{M}=kg$ for some $g\in G$ and $k\in\mathbb{Q}$. Then $k$ is an integer and, since $h$ is a homomorphism, we have $k=kh(g)=h(\operatorname{det}{M})=\operatorname{det}{h(M)}=\pm1$. Thus, $k=\pm1$ and $\operatorname{det}{M}$ is an invertible element of $\mathbb{Z}[G]$, which is a contradiction.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for your answer! As you have noticed the nonabelian case seems to be puzzling. Wish to get an answer modulo Kaplansky conjecture if necessary… $\endgroup$
    – GSM
    Commented Oct 12 at 10:13

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