Earticle

In this article, we compute the order of a general linear group GLn(A) over a finite ring A.

Let $m$ and $k$ be any positive integers, let $\mathbb{Z}_k$ the ring of integers of modulo $k$, let $G_m(\mathbb{Z}_k)$ the group of all $m$ by $m$ nonsingular matrices over $\mathbb{Z}_k$ and let ${\phi}_m(k)$ the order of $G_m(\mathbb{Z}_k)$. In this paper, ${\phi}_m(k)$ can be computed by the following investigation: First, for any relatively prime positive integers $s$ and $t$, $G_m(\mathbb{Z}_{st})$ is isomorphic to $G_m(\mathbb{Z}_s){\times}G_m(\mathbb{Z}_t)$. Secondly, for any positive integer $n$ and any prime $p$, ${\phi}_m(p^n)=p^{m^2}{\cdot}{\phi}_m(p^{n-1})=p{^{2m}}^2{\cdot}{\phi}_m(p^{n-2})={\cdots}=p^{{(n-1)m}^2}{\cdot}{\phi}_m(p)$, and so ${\phi}_m(k)={\phi}_m(p_1^n1){\cdot}{\phi}_m(p_2^{n2}){\cdots}{\phi}_m(p_s^{ns})$ for the prime factorization of $k$, $k=p_1^{n1}{\cdot}p_2^{n2}{\cdots}p_s^{ns}$.

Let m be any positive integer, R be a ring with identity, $M_m(R)$ be the matrix ring of all m by m matrices eve. R and $G_m(R)$ be the multiplicative group of all n by n nonsingular matrices in $M_m(R)$. In this pape., the following are investigated: (1) for any pairwise coprime ideals ${I_1,\;I_2,\;...,\;I_n}$ in a ring R, $M_m(R/(I_1{\cap}I_2{\cap}...{\cap}I_n))$ is isomorphic to $M_m(R/I_1){\times}M_m(R/I_2){\times}...{\times}M_m(R/I_n);$ and $G_m(R/I_1){\cap}I_2{\cap}...{\cap}I_n))$ is isomorphic to $G_m(R/I_1){\times}G_m(R/I_2){\times}...{\times}G_m(R/I_n);$ (2) In particular, if R is a finite ring with identity, then the order of $G_m(R)$ can be computed.