On Dirichlet biquadratic fields (Q2684399)

For any algebraic number field \(K\), let \(\mathrm{Cl}(K)\) (\(\mathrm{Cl}^+(K)\) resp.) denote the (narrow, resp.) ideal class group of \(K\). The authors investigate Dirichlet biquadratic fields \(K_n = \mathbb Q( \sqrt n, \sqrt {-n})\), where \(1 < n\) is a squarefree integer. Supposing that \(3<n\) and both the \(4\)-ranks of \(\mathrm{Cl}(\mathbb Q(\sqrt n))\) and \(\mathrm{Cl}(\mathbb Q(\sqrt {-n}))\) vanish, the main result (Theorem 1.1) gives an explicit formula for the \(4\)-rank of \(\mathrm{Cl}(K_n)\), depending on the prime divisors of \(n\) and the Hasse unit index (which is equivalent to the solubility of the Diophantine equation \(X^2 - nY^2 = \pm 2\)). One main ingredient for the proof is a formula for the \(2\)-rank of \(\mathrm{Cl}(K_n)\) (Proposition 2.4), depending on the well-known result about the \(2\)-rank of the class group of a quadratic field and the fact that \(\mathbb Q (i)\) is contained in \(K_n\). Theorem 1.1 enables the authors to show that there exists a set of squarefree natural numbers \(n\) of positive density, such that the \(4\)-rank of \(\mathrm{Cl}(K_n)\) equals \(\omega_3(n) -1\), where \(\omega_3(n)\) denotes the number of primes \(p \equiv 3 \pmod 4\) dividing \(n\). In a subsequent paper, \textit{the authors} and \textit{C. Pagano} [J. Inst. Math. Jussieu 21, No. 5, 1543-1570 (2022; Zbl 1502.11102)] showed that the latter result indeed holds for ``most'' \(n\).