Some remarks on decomposition of Steinberg group (Q1801769)

Several authors studied various normal forms for elements of Steinberg groups. Among those, \textit{R. W. Sharpe} [J. Algebra 68, 453-467 (1981; Zbl 0465.18006)] has given a beautiful 4-term decomposition \(\text{St}(A)=\text{LPLU}\) for an arbitrary ring \(A\). Unfortunately, Sharpe's decomposition fails for the unstable Steinberg group in any dimension. It seems to be reasonable to replace the group \(P\) by another group \(W\). The reviewer [Chin. Sci. Bull. 37, No. 15, 1244-1248 (1992)] gave a necessary and sufficient condition for the 4-term decomposition LWLU of unstable Steinberg groups over commutative rings. The paper under review extends the reviewer's result to the case of noncommutative rings by taking another suitable group \(W\).