The 2-primary class group of certain hyperelliptic curves (Q1612530)

Consider the field \(\mathbb F_q(\mathbb T, \sqrt{e{\mathfrak p}})\) for \({\mathfrak p}\) a monic prime polynomial in \(\mathbb F_q(T)\) of even degree \(k\) and \(e\) nonsquare in \(\mathbb F_q\). Let \(h({\mathfrak p})\) denote the class number. Then \(h({\mathfrak p})\) is divisible by 2 or 4 (resp.) according as \(k\), but no divisibility condition for \(k\) assures divisibility by 8. This is like \(h(p)\) the class number of \(\mathbb Q(\sqrt {-p})\) (\(p\) prime), which is divisible by \(m=2^t\) when \(p\equiv 1\bmod 2m\) for \(m=2\) or 4 and when \(p\) splits in \(\mathbb Q(\sqrt i, \sqrt{(1+i)})\) for \(m=8\) (no divisibility condition for \(p)\). This result of \textit{P. Barrucand} and \textit{H. Cohn} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 238, 67--70 (1969; Zbl 0207.36202)] led to the concept of the ``governing field'' [see \textit{P. Stevenhagen}, J. Number Theory 43, 1--19 (1993; Zbl 0767.11054)] which the author extends as part of a much larger program involving Jacobians, quaternion algebras, Drinfeld modules, etc., [see his earlier work in Math. Ann. 314, 175--196 (1999; Zbl 0979.11029)].