Prodihedral groups as Galois groups over number fields (Q1126380)

Let \(l\) be a rational prime and \(\mathbb{D}_l\) be the projective limit of the dihedral groups \(D_{l^n}\) \((n\to\infty)\), which is a split extension of \(\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}\) by the \(l\)-adic integers \(\mathbb{Z}_l\). In this paper, the authors give proofs of a synthetic series of results on the Galois extensions with Galois group \(\mathbb{D}_l\) announced in their previous paper [\textit{W.-D. Geyer} and \textit{C. U. Jensen}, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, I. Sér. 319, 1241-1244 (1994; Zbl 0818.11039)]. The main theme of this paper is to estimate, for a given quadratic separable extension \(L/K\), the number \(a_l^-(L/K)\) of the independent \(\mathbb{D}_l\)-extensions over \(K\) with \(L\) being the fixed field of \(\mathbb{Z}_l\). The results are classified into cases depending on the characteristic of fields. In the number field case when \(L\) is not totally real, an Iwasawa-theoretic investigation gives finiteness and a certain estimation of \(a_l^-(L/K)\), e.g., if the Leopoldt conjecture for \(L\) is true with respect to \(l\), then \(a_l^-(L/K)=r_2(K)+\delta(L/K)\), where \(\delta(L/K)\) is the number of complex places of \(L\) with real restriction on \(K\). In particular, if \(L=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-d})\), \(K=\mathbb{Q}\), then \(a_l^-(L/K)=1\), so that there exists a unique \(\mathbb{D}_l\)-extension \(M\) of \(\mathbb{Q}\) extending the imaginary quadratic field \(L=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-d})\)). In the special case when \(l=2\), the socle of \(M/\mathbb{Q}\) is by definition the unique biquadratic extension \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-d},\sqrt{a})\) in \(M\), where \(a\) can be taken as a divisor of \(2d\). In the last part the authors investigate an explicit determination of `\(a\)' for given primes \(d\). Applying these results, they obtain examples of imaginary quadratic fields \(K\) such that \(K(\sqrt{-1})/K\) can be embedded into \(\mathbb{Z}/2^n\mathbb{Z}\)-extensions of \(K\) for all \(n\), but never into a \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-extension of \(K\).