On the Iwasawa algebra for pro-\(l\) Galois groups (Q1925745): Difference between revisions

The paper under review concerns the structure of some semi-simple algebra occurring in Iwasawa theory, namely of the form \[ \mathcal{Q}G=\operatorname{Quot}(\mathbb{Z}_l[\![G]\!]) \] for some odd prime number \(l>2\) and pro-\(l\) group \(G\). More precisely, let \(k\) be a totally real number field and let \(K/k\) be a Galois extension with pro-\(l\) Galois group \(G=\operatorname{Gal}(K/k)\) which is a \textit{finite} extension of the cyclotomic \(\mathbb{Z}_l\)-extension \(k_\infty\) of \(k\). This is a natural setting for studying non-commutative Iwasawa theory for the field \(k\): indeed, there is a localisation exact sequence \[ K_1(\Lambda G)\to K_1(\mathcal{Q}G)\rightarrow{\partial} K_0T(\Lambda G) \] where we denote by \(\Lambda G\) the completed group algebra \(\varprojlim \mathbb{Z}_l[G/N]\) for \(N\) running through normal, open subgroups; and by \(\mathcal{Q}G\) its total ring of fractions. \textit{J. Ritter} and \textit{A. Weiss} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 24, No. 4, 1015--1050 (2011; Zbl 1228.11165)] and Coates-Fukaya-Kato-Sujatha-Venjakob in [\textit{J. Coates} et al., Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 101, 163--208 (2005; Zbl 1108.11081)] proposed a Main Conjecture for the extension \(K/k\) which is the non-commutative generalisation of the classical Main Conjecture for pro-\(l\) abelian extensions. The non-commutative Main Conjecture can be formulated as the existence of a unique element \(\Theta\in K_1(\mathcal{Q}G)\) such that \(\partial(\Theta)\in K_0T(\Lambda G)\) is the class of the Galois group \(X=\mathrm{Gal}(M/K)\) of the maximal abelian \(l\)-extension of \(K\) which is unramified outside of primes above \(p\) (this \(X\) is naturally a \(\Lambda G\)-module, and it thus makes sense to consider its class in the Grothendieck group \(K_0\)); and the determinant \(\operatorname{Det}(\Theta)\), seen as \(\big(\overline{\mathbb{Q}_l}\otimes\mathcal{Q}(G)\big)^\times\)-valued homomorphism of the group of irreducible characters of \(G\), verifies a suitable interpolation property of classical \(L\)-values -- a property which makes it reasonable to baptise a sought-for element verifying it a \(p\)-adic \(L\)-\textit{function}. This Main Conjecture has by now been proven by \textit{M. Kakde} [Invent. Math. 193, No. 3, 539--626 (2013; Zbl 1300.11112)] although uniqueness of the element \(\Theta\) remains open and it heavily relies upon the algebraic structure of the algebra \(\mathcal{Q}G\): this is the first motivation for the author for addressing the detailed study presented in this work. The main result that she obtains is Theorem 1, where she determines every irreducible component \(A\) of \(\mathcal{Q}G\) entirely, including its Shur index and its structure as matrix algebra over a suitable skew-field. A striking application is provided at the end of Secion 2, where an example is given of an extension \(K/k\) verifying all the properties above for which the algebra \(\mathcal{Q}G\) has some non-trivial Shur index: this is in contrast with the case of a finite \(l\)-group \(\Delta\), where Roquette proves (see \textit{P. Roquette} [Arch. Math. 9, 241--250 (1958; Zbl 0083.25002)]) that the corresponding group algebra contains no quaternion algebras in its decomposition. The third and final section addresses another structural result of \(\mathcal{Q}G\), namely its cohomological dimension. After a preliminary study of possible \(\mathfrak{p}\)-adic completions of \(\mathcal{Q}G\) for various primes \(\mathfrak{p}\subseteq \Lambda G\), which relates these completions to higher dimensional local fields, the author is in shape to invoke some result of \textit{S. Saito} [Invent. Math. 85, 379--414 (1986; Zbl 0609.13003)] to show the following {Corollary 5.} For the group \(\Gamma\cong\mathbb{Z}_l\), we have that the cohomological dimension of \(\mathcal{Q}\Gamma\) is \(3\).