Steinitz classes of tamely ramified Galois extensions of algebraic number fields (Q971845): Difference between revisions

Let \(L/K\) be an extension of number fields with degree \(n\). It is known that the rings of integers in these extensions satisfy \({\mathcal O}_L \simeq {\mathcal O}_K^{n-1} \oplus I \) for some ideal \(I\) in \({\mathcal O}_K\); the Steinitz class of the extension \(L/K\) is then defined to be the ideal class of \(I\) in the class group of \(K\). For a given finite group \(G\), consider the set of tame extensions \(L/K\) with Galois group \(G\); their Steinitz classes represent a set \(R_t(K,G)\) of ideal classes which is conjectured to be a group. This conjecture is known to hold for abelian groups \(G\) as well as for other classes of finite groups, but has not yet been proved in general. In this article, a set \(S\) of (isomorphism classes of) finite groups is constructed such that this conjecture holds for all groups in \(S\) with odd order. This is done as follows: 1. Finite abelian groups are in \(S\). 2. \(S\) is closed with respect to direct products. 3. \(S\) is closed with respect to semi-direct products \(H \rtimes G\), where \(H\) is abelian and has order coprime to that of \(G\). It is easy to see that the groups in \(S\) are finite solvable groups whose Sylow subgroups are abelian, and the author asks whether the converse also holds. The fact that groups with odd order in \(S\) satisfy the conjecture above follows by induction from the following result: if \(G_1\) and \(G_2\) are groups of orders \(m\) and \(n\), respectively, and if they satisfy the conjecture, then \[ R_t(K,G_1 \times G_2) = R_t(K,G_1)^n R_t(K,G_2)^m, \] and \(G_1 \times G_2\) satisfies the conjecture. Finally, the author shows that the conjecture on Steinitz classes holds for cyclic groups of order \(2\) (more exactly: \(R_t(K,\mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z)\) is the full class group of \(K\)) and dihedral groups of order \(2n\) with \(n\) odd.