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Thomas Schick: The strong Bass conjecture for group elements of finite order and for residually finite groups

Let k be an integral domain and ring and G a discrete group. Then the Hattori-Stallings trace $\tau_P$ of a finitely generated projective kG-module P is a function on the conjugacy classes of elements of G with values in k. The strong Bass conjecture asserts that $\tau_P(g)$ is zero if the order of g is not invertible in k (with the convention that $\infty$ is never invertible). In this note, we prove the strong Bass conjecture for arbitrary integral domains $k$ and for group elements of finite order. This is a generalization of the corresponding result of Linnell for $k=\integers$ and (like Linnell's proof) is based on a calculation of Cliff. The establish the strong Bass conjecture (for all group elements) for domains in which no prime is invertible, if G is residually finite. If G is residually a finite p-group for every prime p, then we prove the strong Bass conjecture for $kG$ for every integral domain k.


Thomas Schick