Congruence function fields with class number one

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Abstract: We prove that there exists, up to isomorphism, exactly one function field over the finite field of two elements of class number one and genus four. This result, together with the ones of MacRae, Madan, Leitzel, Queen and Stirpe, establishes that there exist eight non-isomorphic congruence function fields of genus larger than zero and class number one.


\textit{P. Mercuri} and \textit{C. Stirpe} [``Classification of algebraic function fields with class number one, Preprint, \url{arXiv:1406.5365}] showed that, up to isomorphism, there is only one function field \(K\) with exact field of constants \(\mathbb F_2\) of genus \(g_K=4\) and with class number \(h_K=1\). In the paper under review, the authors provide a different proof of this result. They use the Carlitz-Hayes theory of cyclotomic function fields, which may be outlined as follows: Let \(k=\mathbb F_q(T)\), with \(k^{ac}\) the algebraic closure of \(k\). For \(u\in k^{ac}, M\in\mathbb F_q[T]\), define \(\Phi(M)\in \text{End}_{\mathbb F_q}k^{ac}\) by \(\Phi(M)(u)=M(\phi+\mu)(u)\), where \(\phi:k^{ac}\rightarrow k^{ac}\), \(\phi(u)=u^q\) is the Frobenius automorphism and \(\mu:k^{ac}\rightarrow k^{ac}, \mu(u)=Tu\) is multiplication by \(T\). Then \(\Phi\) endows \(k^{ac}\) with an \(\mathbb F_q[T]\)-module structure, and is called a Carlitz module. If \(\Lambda_M\) denotes the \(M\)-torsion points of \(k^{ac}\) under this action, then the field \(k(\Lambda_M)\) (obtained by adjoining the points of \(\Lambda_M\) to \(k\)) is called a cyclotomic function field (associated with \(M\)). To establish the main result, the authors first show that if \(K\) is a function field over \(\mathbb F_2\) such that \(g_K=4\) and \(h_K=1\), then \(K\) has a unique rational subfield \(k=\mathbb F_2(T)\) such that \([K:k]=5\) and \(K/k\) is a cyclic extension. They then use a result of \textit{M. L. Madan} and \textit{C. S. Queen} [Acta Arith. 20, 423--432 (1972; Zbl 0237.12007)] to deduce that, up to isomorphism, necessarily \(K\subseteq k(\Lambda_M)\mathbb F_{2^5}\), where \(M=T^4+T+1\). The bulk of the proof is contained in Theorem 2.5, which asserts that, up to isomorphism, there exists only one field \(K\) such that \(k\subseteq K\subseteq k(\Lambda_M)\mathbb F_{2^5}\), and the main result (Theorem 2.7) then follows easily from this.











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