Reverse decomposition of unipotents over noncommutative rings. I: General linear groups (Q2187395)

A well-known result on the structure theory of general linear groups is named as sandwich classification theorem, which was proved by \textit{H. Bass} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 22, 489--544 (1964; Zbl 0248.18025)]. Thanks to the sandwich classification theorem, if \(R\) is a commutative ring, \(n \ge 3,\sigma\in \mbox{GL}_n(R), i \neq j \mbox{ and } k\neq l\), then the elementary transvection \(t_{kl}(\sigma_{ij})\) can be expressed as a finite product of \(E_n(R)\)-conjugates of \(\sigma\) and \(\sigma^{-1}\). However, for arbitrary commutative rings it seems difficult to determine a bound for the number of factors needed for such an expression of the elementary transvection \(t_{kl}(\sigma_{ij})\). The most recent breakthrough was made by the author in [J. Group Theory 21, No. 1, 21--44 (2018; bl 1418.20012); ibid 21, No. 4, 539--571 (2018; Zbl 1405.20043)]. In the above papers, the author found an explicit expression of \(t_{kl}(\sigma_{ij})\) as a product of 8 elementary conjugate of \(\sigma\) and \(\sigma^{-1}\) when \(R\) is a commutative ring. As a follow-up result, in this paper the author consider the noncommutative rings case, including von Neumann regular rings, Banach algebras, rings satisfying a stable range condition, rings with Euclidean algorithm, and almost commutative rings. Finally, the author also raises many open questions. The paper is well written, is easy to read, and contains many interesting results.