A note on Galois groups and local degrees (Q1740371)

We say that a subfield \(F\) of \(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}\) has \textit{bounded local degrees at a prime number p} if it can be embedded in some finite extension of \(\mathbb{Q}_p\). We say that \(F\) has \textit{uniformly bouded local degrees} if there exists a positive integer \(n\) such that, for every prime number \(p\), \(F\) can be embedded in some finite extension of \(\mathbb{Q}_p\) of degree at most \(n\). It is proved that a Galois extension of a number field has uniformly bounded local degrees if and pnly if its Galois group has finite exponent [the author and \textit{U. Zannier}, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 349 (1--2), 11--14 (2011; Zbl 1225.11145); the author, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 365 (4), 2223--2240 (2013; Zbl 1281.11098)]. This paper shows that the non uniform boundedness of the local degrees is not equivalent to any group theoretical property. Let \(\mathcal{S}\) be a set of rational primes. Let \(K\) be a number field let \(\mu(K)\) be the group of its roots of unity. Let \(G=\prod_{m \geq 1} G_m\) be a direct product of a family of finite groups \(\{ G_m \}_m\) with unbounded exponents and suppose that, for every \(m\), the group \(G_m\) satisfies one of the following conditions: \noindent (1) \(G_m\) is abelian of odd order; \noindent (2) \(G_m\) is solvable of order prime to \(|\mu(K)|\); \noindent (3) \(G_m\) is an iterated semidirect products of abelian groups of order not divisible by the primes in \(\mathcal{S}\). Then \(G\) has a realisation over \(K\) with bounded local degrees at all primes in \(\mathcal{S}\). If moreover the groups \(G_m\)'s have coprime orders, then \(G\) admits also a realisation over \(K\) with unbounded local degrees at all primes in \(\mathcal{S}\).