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

Author1: Dominique Arlettaz
Author2: Christian Ausoni
Author3: Mamoru Mimura
Author4: Nobuaki Yagita

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification numbers: 19 D 55 , 20 G 10 , 55 R
40 , 55 T 99, 57 R 20

Author1: Dominique Arlettaz, Institut de math\'ematiques,
Universit\'e de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Author2: Christian Ausoni, Departement Mathematik, HG, ETH-Zentrum, 8092
Z\"urich, Switzerland

Author3: Mamoru Mimura, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Okayama
University, Okayama, Japan 700

Author4: Nobuaki Yagita, Faculty of Education, Ibaraki University, Mito,
Ibaraki, Japan

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.