Homological stability for automorphisms of symmetric bilinear forms

Abstract

We establish homological stability for automorphisms of symmetric bilinear forms over a class of principal ideal domains that includes all fields, the integers, the Gaussian integers, and the Eisenstein integers. In conjunction with Grothendieck-Witt theoretic calculations, this determines a large part of the stable cohomology of the odd orthogonal groups $O_{\langle g,g \rangle}(\mathbb Z)$ in low degrees.