Homology of GLn: injectivity conjecture for GL4

The homology of GL _n (R) and SL _n (R) is studied, where R is a commutative ‘ring with many units’. Our main theorem states that the natural map H ₄(GL₃(R), k) → H ₄(GL₄(R), k) is injective, where k is a field with char(k) ≠ 2, 3. For an algebraically closed field F, we prove a better result, namely, is injective. We will prove a similar result replacing GL by SL. This is used to investigate the indecomposable part of the K-group K ₄(R).