Paper detail

The quotient Unimodular Vector group is nilpotent

Jose-Rao introduced and studied the Special Unimodular Vector group $SUm_r(R)$ and $EUm_r(R)$, its Elementary Unimodular Vector subgroup. They proved that for $r \geq 2$, $EUm_r(R)$ is a normal subgroup of $SUm_r(R)$. The Jose-Rao theorem says that the quotient Unimodular Vector group, $SUm_r(R)/EUm_r(R)$, for $r \geq 2$, is a subgroup of the orthogonal quotient group $SO_{2(r+1)}(R)/EO_{2(r + 1)}(R)$. The latter group is known to be nilpotent by the work of Hazrat-Vavilov, following methods of A. Bak; and so is the former. In this article we give a direct proof, following ideas of A. Bak, to show that the quotient Unimodular Vector group is nilpotent of class $\leq d = \dim(R)$. We also use the Quillen-Suslin theory, inspired by A. Bak's method, to prove that if $R = A[X]$, with $A$ a local ring, then the quotient Unimodular Vector group is abelian.