Dimension theory and nonstable K-theory for net groups (Q2568686)

The main application of the theory presented here is to show that the non-stable \(K_{1}\) of a major net of rank greater than or equal to \(4\) and having finite Bass-Serre dimension is a nilpotent by abelian group. A net over a ring \(R\) is a collection \(\sigma_{i,j}\) of additive subgroups of \(R\), parameterized by \(i,j \in J\), where \(J\) is some subset of the natural numbers, and such that \(\sigma_{i,j}\sigma_{j,k} \subset \sigma_{i,k}\). Roughly speaking (and ignoring equivalence relations which are built into the theory), a net \(\sigma\) generates subgroups \(E(\sigma) \subset G(\sigma) \subset Gl_{n}(R)\), where \(E(\sigma)\) imitates the group of elementary transformations inside a subgroup \(G(\sigma)\) of matrices of the form \(I + M_{n}(\sigma)\). The article under review is essentially a study of the properties of the group \(K_{1}(\sigma) = G(\sigma)/E(\sigma)\), including stability. The results of this study are achieved by an abstract analysis of group-valued functors defined on a category \({\mathcal C}\) equipped with a suitably defined dimension function.