Determinants of finite potent endomorphisms, symbols and reciprocity laws

The aim of this paper is to offer an algebraic definition of infinite determinants of finite potent endomorphisms using linear algebra techniques. It generalizes Grothendieck's determinant for finite rank endomorphisms and is equivalent to the classic analytic definitions. The theory can be interpreted as a multiplicative analogue to Tate's formalism of abstract residues in terms of traces of finite potent linear operators on infinite-dimensional vector spaces, and allows us to relate Tate's theory to the Segal-Wilson pairing in the context of loop groups.