An explicit construction of the universal division ring of fractions of \(E\langle\langle x_1,\ldots, x_d \rangle\rangle\) (Q2233680): Difference between revisions

Summary: We give a sufficient and necessary condition for a regular Sylvester matrix rank function on a ring \(R\) to be equal to its inner rank \(\rho_R\). We apply it in two different contexts. In our first application, we reprove a recent result of \textit{T. Mai} et al. [``The free field: realization via unbounded operators and Atiyah property'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1905.08187}]: if \(X_1,\ldots, X_d\) are operators in a finite von Neumann algebra \(\mathcal{M}\) with a faithful normal trace \(\tau\), then they generate the free division ring on \(X_1, \ldots, X_d\) in the algebra of unbounded operators affiliated to \(\mathcal{M}\) if and only if the space of tuples \((T_1,\ldots, T_d)\) of finite rank operators on \(L^2 (\mathcal{M},\tau)\) satisfying \[ \sum_{i=1}^d [T_k, X_k]=0, \] is trivial. In our second and main application we construct explicitly the universal division ring of fractions of \(E \langle\langle x_1,\ldots, x_n \rangle\rangle \), where \(E\) is a division ring, and we use it in order to show the following instance of pro-\(p\) Lück approximation. Let \(F\) be a finitely generated free pro \(p\)-group, \(F=F_1 > F_2 > \cdots\) a chain of normal open subgroups of \(F\) with trivial intersection and \(A\) a matrix over \(\mathbb{F}_p [[F]]\). Denote by \(A_i\) the matrix over \(\mathbb{F}_p [F/F_i]\) obtained from the matrix \(A\) by applying the natural homomorphism \(\mathbb{F}_p [[F]] \to \mathbb{F}_p [F/F_i]\). Then there exists the limit \[ \displaystyle\lim_{i \to \infty} \frac{\mathrm{rk}_{\mathbb{F}_p} (A_i)}{|F:F_i|} \] and it is equal to the inner rank \(\rho_{\mathbb{F}_p [[F]]} (A)\) of the matrix \(A\).