Nonabelian K-theory: The nilpotent class of K1 and general stability

A functorial filtration GL _n =S^–1L _n S⁰L _n S ⁱ L _n E _n of the general linear group GL _{n, n} 3, is defined and it is shown for any algebra A, which is a direct limit of module finite algebras, that S^–1 L _n (A)/S⁰L _n (A) is abelian, that S⁰L _n (A) S¹L _n (A) is a descending central series, and that S ⁱ L _n (A) = E _n(A) whenever i the Bass-Serre dimension of A. In particular, the K-functors k ₁ S ⁱ L _n =S ⁱ L _n /E _n are nilpotent for all i 0 over algebras of finite Bass-Serre dimension. Furthermore, without dimension assumptions, the canonical homomorphism S ⁱ L _n (A)/S ⁱ⁺¹ L _n (A)S ⁱ L _{n+ 1}(A)/S ⁱ⁺¹ L _{n + 1} (A) is injective whenever n i + 3, so that one has stability results without stability conditions, and if A is commutative then S⁰L _n (A) agrees with the special linear group SL _n (A), so that the functor S⁰L _n generalizes the functor SL _n to noncommutative rings. Applying the above to subgroups H of GL _n (A), which are normalized by E _n(A), one obtains that each is contained in a sandwich GL _n (A, ) H E _n(A, ) for a unique two-sided ideal of A and there is a descending S⁰L _n (A)-central series GL _n (A, ) S⁰L _n (A, ) S¹L _n (A, ) S ⁱ L _n (A, ) E _n(A, ) such that S ⁱ L _n (A, )=E _n(A, ) whenever i Bass-Serre dimension of A.Dedicated to Alexander Grothendieck on his sixtieth birthday