Integral cohomology and Chern classes of the special linear group over the ring of integers

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the complete calculation of the additive structure of the 2-torsion of the integral cohomology of the infinite special linear group SL(ℤ) over the ring of integers ℤ. This enables us to determine the best upper bound for the order of the Chern classes of all integral and rational representations of discrete groups.