scientific article; zbMATH DE number 192903

Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to associative rings and algebras (16-02) Grothendieck groups, (K)-theory, etc. (16E20) Separable algebras (e.g., quaternion algebras, Azumaya algebras, etc.) (16H05) Group rings (16S34) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to category theory (18-02) Algebraic (K)-theory and (L)-theory (category-theoretic aspects) (18F25) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to group theory (20-02) Group rings of finite groups and their modules (group-theoretic aspects) (20C05) Finite nilpotent groups, (p)-groups (20D15)

Review text

The book contains a systematic exposition of the various techniques which were developed for the study of Whitehead groups of finite groups and of some related objects. It includes a large number of recent results which were available until now only in the research literature. The importance of the subject can hardly be overestimated when taking into account its numerous and important implications in the development of modern algebra and topology. The author, who is known as one of the main contributors to this field of research, offers here a reference work aimed not only at experts working with K- and L-theory of finite groups, but also at nonspecialists who need some specific applications involving Whitehead groups. The Whitehead group Wh(G) of a group G is defined as a quotient of the group \(K_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\); both groups are intimately related to the subgroup \(SK_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])=Ker[K_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\to K_ 1({\mathbb{Q}}[G])]\), which, for G a finite group, turns out to be isomorphic to the torsion subgroup of Wh(G) (Wall's theorem). In fact, the structures of both \(K_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\) and Wh(G) are completely understood once the structure of \(SK_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\) is known. For this reason, most of the material in the book concentrates on the understanding of the structure of \(SK_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\) and of its subgroup \(Cl_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G]).\) The book starts with a long introduction, mainly for the use of nonspecialists, which contains a history of the subject, an overview of the algorithms for describing Wh(G), and a survey of computations. The rest of the text is divided into three parts. The general theory developed in part I starts in chapter 1 with a survey of some basic algebraic background, including subjects as semisimple algebras and maximal orders, p-adic completions, K-theory of finite and semilocal rings, and Morita equivalences. The next three chapters present, respectively, the basic applications of the reduced norm and logarithm homomorphisms in the description of \(K_ 1({\mathfrak A})\) and \(K_ 1(A)\), for \({\mathfrak A}^ a\) \({\mathbb{Z}}\)-order or \({\hat {\mathbb{Z}}}_ p\)-order in a semisimple \({\mathbb{Q}}\)- or \({\hat {\mathbb{Q}}}_ p\)-algebra A, the definition of the continuous \(K_ 2\) for p-adic algebras and orders and its use in the construction of localization exact sequences, and the congruence subgroup problem. Some simple applications of the congruence subgroup theorem to the study of \(Cl_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\) appear in chapter 5, and the integral p-adic logarithm, an important tool in the sequel, is introduced in chapter 6. Part II is devoted to the study of the detailed structure of \(K_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\) and of the related groups when G is a p-group. Some preliminary results for general finite groups are reported in chapter 7, including Wall's theorem. The next two chapters deal with the computations of \(SK_ 1({\hat {\mathbb{Z}}}_ p[G])\) (the p-adic quotient of \(SK_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\) and \(Cl_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\), respectively, for G a p- group. The group \(SK_ 1({\hat {\mathbb{Z}}}_ p[G])\) is described in terms of \(H_ 2(G)\); the structure of \(Cl_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\) is determined completely for p odd, and partly for \(p=2\). Chapter 10 approaches the problem of determining specific generators for the torsion free part of Wh(G). The more general situation when G is an arbitrary finite group is treated in part III. The main idea here is to reduce the computations first to the case where G is p-elementary (a product of a cyclic group with a p- group), and then to the case where G is a p-group. The formal machinery of the first reduction is based on A. Dress' induction theory, which is explained in chapter 11. The whole reduction process is then performed in detail in the next two chapters, for \(SK_ 1({\hat {\mathbb{Z}}}_ p[G])\) and \(Cl_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\), respectively. Many of the results are then applied in the final chapter 14 to the computation of \(SK_ 1({\mathbb{Z}}[G])\) in various cases.

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