Whitehead torsion V (Ex)

Exercise 0.1.

1. Show that the operations (1)-(5) from [Lück2001, Section 1.4] used in the definition of the Whitehead group in fact yield equivalence classes of invertible matrices of arbitrary size.
2. Show that addition is well-defined in the Whitehead group via

$\displaystyle [A] + [B] = \left [\begin{array}{cc} A & 0 \\ 0 & B \end{array} \right] = [A \cdot (B \oplus \text{Id}_{n-m})].$ $$\displaystyle [A] + [B] = \left [\begin{array}{cc} A & 0 \\ 0 & B \end{array} \right] = [A \cdot (B \oplus \text{Id}_{n-m})].$$

Here $A$$\newcommand{\Z}{\mathbb{Z}} \newcommand{\R}{\mathbb{R}} \newcommand{\C}{\mathbb{C}} \newcommand{\N}{\mathbb{N}} \newcommand{\Q}{\mathbb{Q}} \newcommand{\F}{\mathbb{F}} \newcommand{\bZ}{\mathbb{Z}} \newcommand{\bR}{\mathbb{R}} \newcommand{\bC}{\mathbb{C}} \newcommand{\bH}{\mathbb{H}} \newcommand{\bQ}{\mathbb{Q}} \newcommand{\bF}{\mathbb{F}} \newcommand{\bN}{\mathbb{N}} \DeclareMathOperator\id{id} % identity map \DeclareMathOperator\Sq{Sq} % Steenrod squares \DeclareMathOperator\Homeo{Homeo} % group of homeomorphisms of a topoloical space \DeclareMathOperator\Diff{Diff} % group of diffeomorphisms of a smooth manifold \DeclareMathOperator\SDiff{SDiff} % diffeomorphism under some constraint \DeclareMathOperator\Hom{Hom} % homomrphism group \DeclareMathOperator\End{End} % endomorphism group \DeclareMathOperator\Aut{Aut} % automorphism group \DeclareMathOperator\Inn{Inn} % inner automorphisms \DeclareMathOperator\Out{Out} % outer automorphism group \DeclareMathOperator\vol{vol} % volume \newcommand{\GL}{\text{GL}} % general linear group \newcommand{\SL}{\text{SL}} % special linear group \newcommand{\SO}{\text{SO}} % special orthogonal group \newcommand{\O}{\text{O}} % orthogonal group \newcommand{\SU}{\text{SU}} % special unitary group \newcommand{\Spin}{\text{Spin}} % Spin group \newcommand{\RP}{\Rr\mathrm P} % real projective space \newcommand{\CP}{\Cc\mathrm P} % complex projective space \newcommand{\HP}{\Hh\mathrm P} % quaternionic projective space \newcommand{\Top}{\mathrm{Top}} % topological category \newcommand{\PL}{\mathrm{PL}} % piecewise linear category \newcommand{\Cat}{\mathrm{Cat}} % any category \newcommand{\KS}{\text{KS}} % Kirby-Siebenmann class \newcommand{\Hud}{\text{Hud}} % Hudson torus \newcommand{\Ker}{\text{Ker}} % Kernel \newcommand{\underbar}{\underline} %Classifying Spaces for Families of Subgroups \newcommand{\textup}{\text} \newcommand{\sp}{^}A$ and $B$$B$ are invertible matricies over the group ring $\Zz[\pi]$$\Zz[\pi]$, $A$$A$ is an $n \times n$$n \times n$ matrix, $B$$B$ is an $m \times m$$m \times m$ matrix with $n \geq m$$n \geq m$, $O$$O$ denotes the zero $n \times m$$n \times m$ and $m \times n$$m \times n$ matricies and $\cdot$$\cdot$ denotes matrix multiplication.

1. Show that $Wh(e)$$Wh(e)$ is trivial.