Computing Borel's regulator (Q487124): Difference between revisions

Let \({\mathcal O}_F\) be a ring of integers in an algebraic number field \(F.\) The Borel regulator \(R_{n}(F)\) measures the covolume of \(K_{2n+1}(F)\) as a lattice embedded in certain \({\mathbb R}^{d_{n}}. \) In the paper the authors give a new approach to computing \(R_{1}(F)\) in the case when \(F\) is a cyclotomic field. This relies on the study of a set of elements \(z_{u} \in K_{3}(F)\) that correspond to primitive roots of unity. The authors are able to compute the covolume \(V_{1}(F)\) of the lattice generated by the images of these elements in \({\mathbb R}^{d_{1}}.\) If the elements \(z_{u}\in K_{3}(F)\) form a basis modulo torsion then \(R_{1}(F)=V_{1}(F)\) otherwise \(V_{1}(F)\) is an integer multiple of \(R_{1}(F).\) The calculation of \(V_{1}(F) \) is done by first computing the images of the \(z_{u}\) in the homology group \(H_{3}(E({\mathbb C})\) of the discrete group of elementary matrices over the complex numbers and then by applying the universal Borel class to these chains. This is achieved by expansion of the Karoubi-Hida integral as an infinite power series.