Galois-module theory for wildly ramified covers of curves over finite fields (with an appendix by Bernhard Köck and Adriano Marmora) (Q1740284)

The main goal of this paper is a generalization of the main theorem, applied to curves, of \textit{T. Chinburg} in [Ann. Math. (2) 139, No. 2, 443--490 (1994; Zbl 0828.14007)]. This generalization is what the authors call ``\textit{strong formula}''. The ``\textit{weak formula}'', as called by the authors, is a corollary of the strong formula. These formulas relate the \(p\)-adic valuation of epsilon constants appearing in functional equations of Artin \(L\)-functions to an equivariant Euler characteristic. More precisely, let \(K_0(K[G])\) be the Grothendieck group of all finitely generated projective modules over \(K[G]\), where \(G\) is a finite group and \(K\) is any field. Let \(K_0(G,K)\) be the Grothendieck group of all finitely generated \(K[G]\)-modules. The equivariant Euler characteristic of \(\bar{X}:=X\times_{{\mathbb F}_p} \bar{\mathbb F}_p\), where \(X\) is an irreducible smooth projective curve over \({\mathbb F}_p\), is \(\chi(G,\bar{X},{\mathcal O}_{ \bar{X}}):=[H^0(\bar{X},{\mathcal O}_{\bar{X}}]-[H^1(\bar{X},{\mathcal O}_{\bar{X}}]\in K_0(G,\bar{\mathbb F}_p)\). The other invariant is \(E(G,X)\) defined as follows. Let \(V\) be a finite \(\bar{\mathbb Q}\)-representation of \(G\) and let \(\varepsilon (V)\in\bar{\mathbb Q}\), called the \textit{epsilon constant}, be the factor appearing in the functional equation of the Grothendieck \(L\)-function \(L(V,t)\) associated with \(X,G\) and \(V\). There exists a unique element \(E(G,X)\in K_0(\bar{\mathbb Q}_p[G])\otimes {\mathbb Q}\) such that \(\langle E(G,X),j_p(V)\rangle=-v_p(j_p(\varepsilon(V)))\) where the pairing \(\langle \cdot,\cdot\rangle\colon K_0(\bar{\mathbb Q}_p [G])\times K_0(\bar{\mathbb Q}_p[G])\longrightarrow {\mathbb Z}\) is non-degenerated, with \(j_p\colon \bar{\mathbb Q}\longrightarrow\bar{\mathbb Q}_p\) an embedding and \(v_p\) the \(p\)-adic valuation. The weak formula is \(d(E(G,X))=\chi(G,\bar{X},{\mathcal O}_{\bar{X}})\) in \(K_0(G,\bar{\mathbb F}_p)\otimes {\mathbb Q}\), where the map \(d\colon K_0(\bar{\mathbb Q}_p[G])\longrightarrow K_0(G,\bar{\mathbb F}_p)\) is the decomposition map. The strong formula is that if \(\pi\) is weakly ramified, then \[ E(G,X)=e(\psi(G,\bar{X}))+\sum_{Q\in\bar{Y}^w}[\mathrm{Ind}_{G_{\tilde{Q}}}^G(1)] \] in \(K_0(\bar{\mathbb Q}[G])\otimes {\mathbb Q}\). Here \(\pi\colon X\longrightarrow X/G=:Y\) is the projection map and \(\bar{\pi}\colon \bar{X}\longrightarrow \bar{Y}\) is the induced map, \(\bar{X}^w=\{P\in\bar{X}\mid \bar{\pi} \text{\ is wildly ramified at\ } P\}\), \(\bar{Y}^w:=\bar{\pi}(\bar{X}^w)\), \(\bar{Y}=Y\times_{{\mathbb F}_p}\bar{\mathbb F}_p\), for \(Q\in\bar{Y}\), \(\tilde Q\) is a point in the fiber \(\pi^{-1}(Q)\) and \(e\colon K_0(\bar{\mathbb F}_p[G]) \longrightarrow K_0(\bar{\mathbb Q}_p[G])\) denote the third homomorphism from the classical \(cde\)-triangle. For the proof of the strong formula, from the classical Artin induction theorem, follows that it suffices to assume that \(G\) is cyclic and that \(V\) corresponds to a character. In Section 2, it is derived a formula for the epsilon constant \(\varepsilon(\chi)\) from the Deligne-Langlands description of \(\varepsilon(\chi)\) as product of local epsilon constants. In Section 3, the authors prove an explicit formula which essentially computes the right hand side of the strong formula. These two formulas imply the strong formula, after observing that the difference between the set \(Y^w\) and the set of points \(\mathfrak{q} \in Y\) such that \(X\) is wildly ramified at \(\mathfrak{q}\) is \(\sum_{Q\in\bar{Y}^w}[\mathrm{Ind}_{G_{\tilde{Q}}}^G(1)]\).