Sandwich classification for O₂n+1(R) and U₂n+1(R,) revisited

Abstract: In a recent paper, the author proved that if

n g e q 3

is a natural number,

R

a commutative ring and

s i g m a i n G L_{n} (R)

, then

t_{k l} (s i g m a_{i j})

where

i e q j

and

k e q l

can be expressed as a product of

8

matrices of the form

^{e p s i l o n} s i g m a^{p m 1}

where

e p s i l o n i n E_{n} (R)

. In this article we prove similar results for the odd-dimensional orthogonal groups

O_{2 n + 1} (R)

and the odd-dimensional unitary groups

U_{2 n + 1} (R, D e l t a)

under the assumption that

R

is commutative and

n g e q 3

. This yields new, short proofs of the Sandwich Classification Theorems for the groups

O_{2 n + 1} (R)

and

U_{2 n + 1} (R, D e l t a)

.

Review text

Let \(R\) be a commutative ring and let \(O_{2n+1}(R)\) be the odd-dimensional orthogonal group, where \(n \geq1\). The \textit{elementary} elements \(T(x)\), \(x \in R\), are by definition unipotent matrices of simple type. They generate the \textit{elementary subgroup} \(EO_{2n+1}(R)\). The most important result in the first part of this paper is a technical theorem. The author proves that, for every \(\sigma=(\sigma_{ij}) \in O_{2n+1}(R)\), each \(T(x)\), where \(x=\sigma_{ij}\;\mathrm{or}\; \sigma_{ii}-\sigma_{jj}\), \(i \neq j\), is a product of \(N\), say, \(EO_{2n+1}(R)\)-conjugates of \(\sigma^{\pm 1}\), where \(N \leq 48\) or \(N=64n+148\). A pair \((I,J)\) of \(R\)-ideals which are closely related in a specified way is called \textit{admissible}. Such a pair is used to define two subgroups (i) \(EO_{2n+1}(R,I,J)\), the \textit{elementary subgroup of level} \((I,J)\) and (ii) \(C_{2n+1}(R,I,J)\), the \textit{full congruence subgroup of level }\((I,J)\). Using the above, he proves the following sandwich classification theorem (SCT): A subgroup \(H\) of \(O_{2n+1}(R)\) is normalized by \(EO_{2n+1}(R)\) if and only if \[ EO_{2n+1}(R,I,J) \leq H \leq CO_{2n+1}(R,I,J), \] for some admissible pair \((I,J)\). The author then uses a similar approach to prove, more generally, an SCT for the much more complicated case of the odd-dimensional unitary group \(U_{2n+1}(R, \Delta)\), where \((R,\Delta)\) is a \textit{Hermitian form ring}. Although these results are already known the author's approach leads to much shorter and simpler proofs. The simplest version of an SCT applies to \(\mathrm{GL}_n(R)\), where \(n \geq 3\). Here, the \(R\)-ideals alone are sufficient to classify the \(E_n(R)\)-normalized subgroups. The first case of this result (indeed the first example of any SCT) is is due to \textit{H. Bass} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 22, 489--544 (1964; Zbl 0248.18025)]. It should be noted that, in general, sandwich classification theorems of the above type only hold for linear groups if the dimension is sufficienly high. It is known, for example, that the \(\mathbb{Z}\)-ideals fail completely to classifiy in this way the \(E_2(\mathbb{Z})\)-normalized subgroups of \(\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{Z})\).

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