On the index of cyclotomic units in characteristic \(p\) and its applications (Q1355090)

Let \(k\) be a global function field of characteristic \(p\) with constant field \(\mathbb{F}_q\). Let \(\infty\) be a fixed place of \(k\) of degree \(d_\infty\) and denote by \(A\) the Dedekind ring of all elements of \(k\) that are integral outside \(\infty\). For an ideal \({\mathfrak m} \subseteq A\) let \(K_{\mathfrak m}\) be the cyclotomic extension of \(k\) obtained from a sgn-normalized rank 1 Drinfeld module over \(A\). Let \(H_{\mathfrak m}\) be the maximal subextension in which \(\infty\) is completely decomposed. Especially, \(H_{\mathfrak e}\) is the Hilbert class field of the pair \((k,\infty)\). Write \(O_{K_{\mathfrak m}}\) resp. \(O_{H_{\mathfrak m}}\) for the corresponding integral closures of \(A\). The author proves two theorems which are function field analogues of classical results by Kummer and Sinnott and which generalize earlier versions for \(d_\infty =1\): Theorem 1. Let \(\overline C_{\mathfrak m}\) be the extended group of cyclotomic units of \(K_{\mathfrak m}\) (the definition is too involved to be repeated here). If \({\mathfrak m}\) has more than 2 different prime divisors, assume \((h(A), q-1)=1\), where \(h\) denotes the class number. Then the index of \(\overline C_{\mathfrak m}\) in the full unit group \(O^*_{K_{\mathfrak m}}\) is \((q-1)^a h(O_{H_{\mathfrak m}})\), where \(a\) is determined by \({\mathfrak m}\). (The proof is similar to the one with \(d_\infty=1\) [\textit{L. Yin}, Compos. Math. 109, No. 1, 49--66 (1997; Zbl 0902.11023)]. He conjectures that the condition on \(h(A)\) in both versions is not really necessary.) Theorem 2: Let \({\mathfrak p} \in A\) be a prime of degree \(>1\). If \(p\) divides the class number of \(O_{H_{ \mathfrak p}}\), then \({\mathfrak p}\) divides a Bernoulli ideal \(B_i\) with \(i\equiv 0\;(q-1)\) and \(1\leq i\leq q^{\deg ({\mathfrak p})}-2\). (This generalizes a result of \textit{L. Shu} [J. Number Theory 49, No. 3, 319--359 (1994; Zbl 0816.11036)] in two ways: the restriction \(d_\infty=1\) is removed and the condition \(p| h(O_{H_{\mathfrak p}})/h(O_{H_{\mathfrak e}})\) is replaced by \(p| h(O_{H_{\mathfrak e}}))\).