Cyclotomic integers of prescribed absolute value and the class group (Q1273717)

The author presents a novel way to get information about the ideal class group \(C\) of the \(m\)th cyclotomic field \(K_m\). Let \(n\) be a positive rational integer. The idea is to find necessary conditions on the integral ideals \((x)\) in \(K_m\) which are generated by solutions of the equation \(x\overline x=n\) (the bar denotes complex conjugation). Since, on the other hand, many solutions of the ideal equation \(A\overline A=(n)\) are nonprincipal, this leads to conclusions on the subgroup of \(C\) generated by the classes of the prime ideals above \(n\). More precisely, let \(p\) be a prime factor of \(m\) and let \(C_P, C_Q\) be the subgroups of \(C\) generated by the classes \([P_i]\) respectively \([Q_i]\), where \(p\) factors in \(K_m\) as \(\prod Q_i\), the \(Q_i\) being powers of (distinct) prime ideals \(P_i\). The author determines the structure of \(C^+C_P/C^+C_Q\) up to a binary parameter, where \(C^+\) is the class group of the real field \(K_m^+\). A further result gives explicit bounds on the size of subgroups of \(C/C^+\). As corollaries one not only obtains several old results on class number factors but also new extensions and analogues of those results. This method of cyclotomic integers of prescribed absolute value was first used by the author in combinatorics, where he achieved remarkable progress in a famous conjecture about circulant Hadamard matrices.