The Whitehead group of the Novikov ring (Q5935571)

The main theorem is a splitting theorem of the Whitehead group of the twisted Novikov ring \(A_\rho((z)): =A_\rho[[z]] [z^{-1}]\). This generalizes a theorem by \textit{H. Bass}, \textit{A. Heller} and \textit{R. G. Swan} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 22, 61-80 (1964; Zbl 0248.18026)] who proved it for polynomial algebras \(A[z,z^{-1}]\), and Farrell-Hsiang-Siebenmann [\textit{L. C. Siebenmann}, Comment. Math. Helv. 45, 1-48 (1970; Zbl 0215.24603)] who proved it for twisted polynomial algebras. Here \(A\) is any unital associative algebra and \(\rho:A\to A\) an automorphisms. The twisted polynomial algebra is defined by imposing the relation \[ az=z \rho(a)\;(a\in A). \] For the untwisted Novikov ring the main theorem had already been proved by \textit{A. Ranicki} [``High-dimensional knot theory'', Springer (1998; Zbl 0910.57001)] by somewhat different methods. The authors also take the opportunity to correct an error in loc. cit., showing that the abelianization of the multiplicative group of Witt vectors in \(A_\rho[[z]]\) does not always inject into its Whitehead group, not even in the untwisted case.