The dualizing module and top-dimensional cohomology group of $$\hbox {GL}_n(\mathcal {O})$$

Abstract

For a number ring $\mathcal{O}$, Borel and Serre proved that $\text{SL}_n(\mathcal{O})$ is a virtual duality group whose dualizing module is the Steinberg module. They also proved that $\text{GL}_n(\mathcal{O})$ is a virtual duality group. In contrast to $\text{SL}_n(\mathcal{O})$, we prove that the dualizing module of $\text{GL}_n(\mathcal{O})$ is sometimes the Steinberg module, but sometimes instead is a variant that takes into account a sort of orientation. Using this, we obtain vanishing and nonvanishing theorems for the cohomology of $\text{GL}_n(\mathcal{O})$ in its virtual cohomological dimension.