Nontriviality of \(SK_ 1 (R[ M])\) (Q1903708)

The author continues his investigations of \(K\)-theoretic properties of monoid rings. The main result concerns a monoid ring \(R[M]\) over a \(K_2\)-regular (e.g. regular) commutative ring \(R\), with \(\mathbb{Z}^r_+ \subset M \subset \mathbb{Q}^r_+\). The following are shown to be equivalent: (a) \(M\) is free, (b) \(R[M]\) is \(K_1\)-regular, (c) \(M\) is seminormal and the natural map \(SK_1 (R[M]) \to SK_1 (R)\) is an isomorphism. If, moreover, the module of absolute differentials \(\Omega_R\) is nonzero, then seminormality is shown to be superfluous in (c).