On finite and elementary generation of SL₂(R)

Publication date 7 August 2008

Free products of groups, free products with amalgamation, Higman-Neumann-Neumann extensions, and generalizations (20E06) Groups acting on trees (20E08) Unimodular groups, congruence subgroups (group-theoretic aspects) (20H05)

Abstract: Motivated by a question of A. Rapinchuk concerning general reductive groups, we are investigating the following question: Given a finitely generated integral domain

R

with field of fractions

F

, is there a emph{finitely generated subgroup}

G a m m a

of

S L_{2} (F)

containing

S L_{2} (R)

? We shall show in this paper that the answer to this question is negative for any polynomial ring

R

of the form

R = R_{0} [s, t]

, where

R_{0}

is a finitely generated integral domain with infinitely many (non--associate) prime elements. The proof applies Bass--Serre theory and reduces to analyzing which elements of

S L_{2} (R)

can be generated by elementary matrices with entries in a given finitely generated

R

--subalgbra of

F

. Using Bass--Serre theory, we can also exhibit new classes of rings which do not have the

G E_{2}

property introduced by P.M. Cohn.

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