Comparing Invariants of SK1

In this text, we compare an invariant of the reduced Whitehead group SK ₁ of a central simple algebra recently introduced by Kahn (2010) to other invariants of SK ₁. Doing so, we prove the non-triviality of Kahn’s invariant using the non-triviality of an invariant introduced by Suslin (1991) which is non-trivial for Platonov’s examples of non-trivial SK ₁ (Platonov, Math USSR Izv 10(2):211–243, 1976). We also give a formula for the value on the centre of the tensor product of two symbol algebras which generalises a formula of Merkurjev for biquaternion algebras (Merkurjev 1995).