Rational homology of Bianchi groups (Q802017)

Let \({\mathcal O}_{-d}\) be the ring of integers in the imaginary quadratic field \({\mathbb{Q}}(\sqrt{-d})\). In his thesis, E. Mendoza described a contractible, SL(2,\({\mathcal O}_{-d})\)-invariant CW complex with finite quotient and determined this complex explicitly for the cases where \({\mathcal O}_{-d}\) is a Euclidean ring \((d=1,2,3,7,11)\). The present paper modifies Mendoza's description, enabling one to determine the complex explicitly for any d. Specific bounds are proved for the number of computations sufficient for each step, the group of symmetries of the complex is determined and the identifications modulo SL(2,\({\mathcal O}_{- d})\) are studied. The complexes and their quotients are computed for all rings \({\mathcal O}_{-d}\) with discriminant greater than -100, and the results are used to compute the rational homology (and thereby the cuspidal cohomology of SL(2,\({\mathcal O}_{-d})\) for these discriminants. By work of Zimmert, Grunewald-Schwermer, Rohlfs and others, this group of discriminants includes all those for which there is no cuspidal cohomology.