Greenberg conjectures and free pro-\(p\)-extensions of a number field (Q1576585)

Let \(k\) be a number field, and let \(K\) be the cyclotomic \({\mathbb{Z}} _p\)-extension of \(k\). Let \(k _n\) be the \(n\)-th layer of the extension \(K/k\). Let \(S _p\) be the set of \(p\)-places in \(k\), and let \(A _n\) be the \(p\)-part of the \(S _p\)-ideal class group, that is, the quotient of the usual class group modulo the classes with support in \(S _p\). The classical conjecture of Greenberg states that \(A := \varinjlim A _n = 0\) for a totally real field \(k\). In fact the conjecture of Greenberg is stated for the usual ideal class group, however, modulo the Leopoldt conjecture, both formulations are equivalent. If \(\widetilde{K}\) is the composition of all \({\mathbb{Z}} _p\)-extensions of \(k\), then \(\text{ Gal}(\widetilde{K}/k) \cong {\mathbb{Z}}_p ^{r _2 + 1 + \delta _p}\), where \(r _2\) is the number of complex places of \(k\) and \(\delta _p \geq 0\). The Leopoldt conjecture states that \(\delta _p = 0\). The generalized Greenberg conjecture states that the \(p\)-part of the \(S _p\)-ideal class group of the maximal \({\mathbb{Z}}_p ^{r _2 + 1}\)-extension \(K ^{(r _2 + 1)}\) of \(k\) is null and that the Galois group of the maximal unramified pro-\(p\)-abelian extension of \(K ^{(r _2 + 1)}\), in which all places above \(p\) decompose fully, is pseudo-null. Under the assumption of the Leopoldt conjecture, we have that a maximal free pro-\(p\)-extension of \(k\) has Galois group of rank \(\rho \leq r _2 + 1\). The main result of the paper under review is that if the \(p\)-th roots of unity are contained in \(k\) (the \(4\)-th roots in case \(p = 2\)) and \(k\) satisfies the generalized conjecture of Greenberg, then \(k\) is \(p\)-rational, that is, the Galois group of the maximal pro-\(p\)-extension of \(k\) unramified outside \(p\) is a pro-\(p\)-free group if and only if \(k\) admits a pro-\(p\)-free extension \(L\) of rank \(r _2 + 1\) such that all the finite subextensions of \(L ^{ab}\) verify the Leopoldt conjecture for \(p\). Here \(L ^{ab}\) denotes the maximal abelian extension of \(k\) contained in \(L\).