Presenting \(GL_n (k\langle T\rangle)\) (Q1304897)

It was proved by \textit{H. Behr} that \(SL_3(\mathbb{F}_q[t])\) is not finitely presentable [In: Homological group theory, Proc. Symp., Durham 1977, Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 36, 213-224 (1979; Zbl 0434.20025)]. The authors use the notion of an essentially infinite set of relations of a group \(G\) on a set of generators \(S\) to derive from his proof that in fact the following holds. Let \(R\) be a ring such that there is an epimorphism from \(R\) to \(k[t]\), for some field \(k\). Then any subgroup of \(GL_3(R)\) which contains \(E_3(R)\) is not finitely presentable. And similarly the Steinberg group \(St_3(R)\) is not finitely presentable. Next they prove an analogue for noncommutative rings of a result of \textit{U. Rehmann} and \textit{C. Soulé} [``Finitely presented groups of matrices'', in: Algebr. K-Theory, Proc. Conf. Evanston 1976, Lect. Notes Math. 551, 164-169 (1976; Zbl 0445.20025)]: If \(n\geq 4\) and \(R\) is a finitely presentable ring, then \(St_n(R)\) is finitely presentable. They apply all this to polynomial rings in noncommutating variables over a field. Finally they show finite presentability of \(GL_n(\mathbb Z[G])\) for a poly-\(\mathbb Z\)-group when \(n\) is in a stable range.