Injective stability for \(K_{1}\) of the orthogonal group (Q2268822)

In a preprint the first two authors showed that if \(R\) is a nonsingular affine algebra of dimension \(d\) over a perfect \(C_1\) field \(k\) then \(\text{Sp}_{2n}(R)/\text{ESp}_{2n}(R)=\text{Sp}(R)/\text{ESp}(R)\) for \(2n\geq d+1\). This in contrast with the bound \(2n\geq2d+4\) of Vaserstein applicable when the field is arbitrary. The main point of the present paper is to provide evidence against a similar improvement for the orthogonal groups. Theorem. Let \(A\) be an affine algebra of dimenson \(d\) over a perfect \(C_1\) field. Assume \(2A=A\). If the stabilization map \(\text{SO}_{2(d+1)}(A)/ \text{EO}_{2(d+1)}(A)\to \text{SO}(A)/ \text{EO}(A)\) is an isomorphism, then every unimodular \((d+1)\)-vector can be completed to an elementary matrix. However, there are examples (over \(\mathbb C\)) where such completion is impossible. One wonders if there are also nonsingular examples. The proof is based on earlier work of the first and the last author where they gave a description of \(\text{SO}_{2(r+1)}(R)/ \text{EO}_{2(r+1)}(R)\) in terms of the subgroup \(\text{SUm}_r(R)\) of \(\text{GL}_{2^r}(R)\) generated by `Suslin matrices'.