Realizing 2-groups as Galois groups following Shafarevich and Serre (Q1727414)

For the statement of the main result, let \(G\) be a nontrivial finite \(2\)-group. The theorem says that there exist infinitely many extension fields \(K\) of \({\mathbb Q}\) with Galois group \(G\). Furthermore, the rational primes which ramify in \(K\) are contained in a congruence class depending on the \(2\)-class \(c\) of \(G\) and their number is bounded by the values of an iteratively defined integral polynomial in the rank of \(G\), whose degree is \((c+3)!/24\). An analogous result for \(p\)-groups with \(p\) odd was found by \textit{H. Reichardt} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 177, 1--5 (1937; Zbl 0016.15103)] and \textit{A. Scholz} [Math. Z. 42, 161--188 (1937; Zbl 0016.00602)] in 1937 and elaborated by \textit{J.-P. Serre} [Topics in Galois theory. Notes written by Henri Darmon. Boston, MA etc.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers (1992; Zbl 0746.12001)]. In that case, the number of ramified primes can be bounded much tighter than in the case \(p=2\) dealt with here. That much more delicate case was first done by \textit{I. R. Shafarevich} [Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 18, 525--578 (1954; Zbl 0057.27401)], using deep results in the cohomology of number fields. In this article, the methods from Scholz and Reichardt are used as the basis of a new proof. They are extended by the approach chosen in [Serre, loc. cit.] and involve a considerable amount of skillful application of the standard methods of algebraic number theory. The author also uses a technique by Shafarevich called `shrinking', but adapts it using the Chevalley-Warning theorem.