Normal subgroups generated by a single pure element in quaternion algebras. (Q854893)

The main result of this paper is that if \(D\) is a quaternion algebra over a field of odd characteristic, and \(x\in D\) is an element whose square is central, then the quotient \(D^\times/\langle x\rangle^{D^\times}\) is Abelian-by-nilpotent-by-Abelian. Moreover, the nilpotency class is bounded in terms of the characteristic. One of the motivations to study such structures comes from algebraic groups. The Whitehead group of an absolutely simple algebraic group \(G\) over a field \(k\) is, by definition, the quotient \(G(k)/G^+(k)\), where \(G^+(k)\) is the subgroup generated by the \(k\)-rational points of the unipotent radicals of \(k\)-defined parabolic subgroups of \(G\). The Kneser-Tits problem, asking whether or not this group is trivial, was settled in various cases, either positively or negatively. Groups of type \(^{3,6}D_4\) present the open case of lowest rank. \textit{G. Prasad} and \textit{M. S. Raghunathan} [Comment. Math. Helv. 60, 107-121 (1985; Zbl 0574.20033)] have reduced the problem to groups of \(k\)-rank \(1\). Recently Prasad has shown that in this case, the Whitehead group is a homomorphic image of \(V/U\), where \(V\) is the group of elements of \(Q^\times\) whose norm is in \(k\) and \(U\) is the group generated by elements of \(Q^\times\) whose both norm and trace are in \(k\), for some quaternion division algebra \(Q\) over a separable extension \(K\) of \(k\), whose corestriction from \(K\) to \(k\) is trivial. The corestriction condition implies that \(Q\) contains a non-central element whose square is in \(k\). It follows that the Whitehead group is Abelian-by-nilpotent-by-Abelian. The proof of the main theorem displays a normal series explicitly, in terms of special commutators if \(D^\times\). In its complicated details, it demonstrates how far are multiplicative groups of division rings from being well understood, even in the simplest case of quaternion algebras.