Bounded generation of SL_2 over rings of S-integers with infinitely many units

Abstract

Let O be the ring of S-integers in a number field k. We prove that if the group of units O^* is infinite then every matrix in $\Gamma$ = SL_2(O) is a product of at most 9 elementary matrices. This completes a long line of research in this direction. As a consequence, we obtain that $\Gamma$ is boundedly generated as an abstract group.