Perfect forms, \(K\)-theory and the cohomology of modular groups (Q2437488)

Through their action on interesting spaces, arithmetic groups play an important role in a vast variety of topics, from topology and geometry to number theory, representation theory and algebraic geometry. Their cohomology captures important information about these objects, and the arithmetic groups themselves. The paper under review considers the rational cohomology of modular groups \(\mathrm{SL}_N(\mathbb{Z})\) and \(\mathrm{GL}_N(\mathbb{Z})\) (with trivial coefficients) for \(N=5,6,7\). This is related to the \(K\)-theory of rational integers \(\mathbb{Z}\), so that some information about \(K_m(\mathbb{Z})\) is also extracted. The case \(N=2\) is known from [\textit{J.-P. Serre}, Trees. Berlin: Springer (2003; Zbl 1013.20001)] and [\textit{K. S. Brown}, Cohomology of groups. New York etc.: Springer-Verlag (1982; Zbl 0584.20036)]. Cases \(N=3\) and \(N=4\) were studied in [\textit{C. Soulé}, Topology 17, 1--22 (1978; Zbl 0382.57026)] and [\textit{R. Lee} and \textit{R. H. Szczarba}, Duke Math. J. 45, 101--129 (1978; Zbl 0385.18009)], respectively. Following the method of R. Lee and R. H. Szczarba [loc. cit.], the idea is to compute the equivariant (for the action of the modular group) homology of the space \(X_N^\ast\) of positive real quadratic forms in \(N\) variables modulo its boundary. This is achieved using the perfect forms of Voronoï in \(N\) variables, that is, a positive definite real quadratic form on \(\mathbb{R}^N\) which is determined, up to a scalar, by its set of integral minimal vectors. The perfect forms are used to define a cell decomposition of \(X_N^\ast\), invariant for the action of the modular group. The homology of the Voronoï complex, obtained from the cell decomposition, is the same as the equivariant homology of \(X_N^\ast\) modulo the boundary. On the other hand, up to a shift in degrees, this equivariant homology is equal to the homology of the modular group with respect to the Steinberg module. The Steinberg module \(\mathrm{St}_N\) is defined as the reduced homology of the spherical Tits building for \(\mathrm{SL}_N\) over \(\mathbb{Q}\) with integral coefficients in the unique degree in which it is non-trivial. By Borel-Serre duality, the homology of the modular group with respect to \(\mathrm{St}_N\) is dual to the cohomology of the modular group with trivial coefficients modulo torsion. Hence, the main results about cohomology of the modular group are obtained by computing the homology of the Voronoï complex for \(N=5,6,7\). The explicit computation for \(N=5,6,7\) of the cell decomposition of \(X_N^\ast\) and the differential of the Voronoï complex is done by a computer. To test whether computations are correct, a mass formula for the orders of stabilizers of cells, obtained from the vanishing of the virtual Euler characteristic for the modular group, and a condition on the explicit matrices of differentials coming from \(d_n\circ d_{n-1}=0\), are checked.