K-theory and the enriched Tits building (Q612989)

The authors analyze in a relaxed style three simplicial complexes associated to an associative ring \(A\). The most elementary one, \(\mathbb F \mathbb L (A^\infty)\), has certain sets of flags of submodules of \(A^\infty\) as vertices, the second one, \(\mathbb S\mathbb P\mathbb L (A^\infty)\), is used in the homotopy theoretical constructions (such as Borel constructions and Quillen's plus constructions), and the last one, the so-called enriched Tits building, has a polyhedral decomposition which is suitable for computational purposes (the last part of the article is devoted to the computation of \(H_0(GL_3(A); H_2(\mathbb E \mathbb T(A^3))) \otimes \mathbb Q\), which connects the present material with the Bloch group). All three are homotopy equivalent. The action of \(GL(A)\) on \(\mathbb S\mathbb P\mathbb L (A^\infty)\) yields a map from the Borel construction to \(BGL(A)\), hence on suitable plus-constructions \(Y(A) \rightarrow BGL(A)^+\). The homotopy fiber \(\mathbb S\mathbb P\mathbb L (A^\infty)^+\) is shown to have the same integral homology as \(\mathbb S\mathbb P\mathbb L (A^\infty)\) and its homotopy groups are denoted by \(L_n(A)\). For a Nesterenko-Suslin ring (and in fact for any ring according to a remark in the introduction), the long exact sequence in homotopy of this fibration specializes to \[ \dots \rightarrow L_2(A) \rightarrow \mathcal H_2(A^\times) \rightarrow K_2(A) \rightarrow L_1(A) \rightarrow \mathcal H_1(A^\times) \rightarrow K_1(A) \rightarrow L_0(A). \] Here \(\mathcal H_n(A^\times)\) are the homotopy groups of the plus-construction on the classifying space of the union in \(GL(A)\) of the semi-direct products of the symmetric groups \(S_n\) with \((A^\times)^n\). A sketch proof identifies these groups with the homotopy groups of \(\Omega^\infty \Sigma^\infty B(A^\times)_+\).