Infinite class field towers (Q2391106): Difference between revisions

In this article, the author attempts to prove the existence of number fields which are ramified at exactly one finite prime, and which have an infinite class field tower. Equation (2.3), however, is false in general: it is not true that the quotient of the ray class number and the absolute class number, \(h\{\mathfrak m\}/h\), is multiplicative, and the error in the proof is the application of the Chinese Remainder Theorem to the quotient group of units modulo principal units \(\equiv 1 \bmod {\mathfrak m}\). Equation (2.3) is used to prove the following statement: let \(K = \mathbb Q(\zeta_{p^m})\) be the field of \(p^m\)-th roots of unity, and let \(H/K\) be a cyclic unramified extension of prime degree \(h\). Then there is a Kummer extension \(L/H\) of prime degree \(p\) ramified at exactly one finite prime above \(p\) whose \(p\)-class group has rank \(\geq h-1\). This statement sounds unlikely, although it will be difficult to find a counterexample because the degrees of the fields involved are large and since unit groups are involved. In particular, the existence of number fields ramified only at one prime \(p\) (for \(p = 2\), \(3\), and \(5\)) with infinite \(p\)-class field tower is still open.