A Horrocks-type theorem for even orthogonal \(K_2\) (Q782492)

The celebrated Serre's problem on projective modules states that finitely generated projective modules over polynomial rings over fields are free. The general case was proved by D. Quillen and A. Suslin, independently in 1975/76. The proof is based on two main ingredients; \textit{viz.} Horrocks theorem, and local-global principle. Quillen, in his proof, introduced a localization technique. Shortly after the original proof, motivated by Quillen's idea, Suslin gave a matrix theoretic proof. He introduced the \(K_1\)-analogue of Horrocks theorem. The main result in this paper is the Horrocks theorem for unstable even dimensional orthogonal Steinberg groups, which generalizes earlier results of Tulenbaev, and Suslin-Kopeiko. They proved: Theorem 1 (Horrocks theorem for orthogonal \(K_2\)). Let \(A\) be a commutative ring in which \(2\) is invertible. Then for any \(l\ge 7\) the following commutative square is a pullback square in which all homomorphisms are injective: \[ \begin{tikzcd} KO_2(2l,A) \ar[r] \ar[d] & KO_2(2l, A[X]) \ar[d]\\ KO_2(2l, A[X^{-1}]) \ar[r] & KO_2(2l, A[X,X^{-1}]) \end{tikzcd} \] Moreover, the same assertion holds if one replaces the functor \(KO_2(2l, -)\) with \(K_2(D_l,-)\) or St\((D_l,-)\), where \(KO_2(2l, -)\) denotes the unstable orthogonal \(K_2\)-functor. The proof uses the theory of relative central extensions developed by J.-L. Loday, and Panin's stability theorem for orthogonal \(K\)-theory. The authors proved the theorem by proving its St\((D_l,-)\)-variant. The main key result is the injectivity theorem for Steinberg groups, which uses Bass' theorem for higher Grothendieck-Witt groups.