Realizable Galois module classes over the group ring for non abelian extensions (Q1955963)

We say that an extension of number fields is tame if it is at most tamely ramified. Fix a number field \(k\) and a finite group \(\Gamma\). We say that \(N\) is a \(\Gamma\)-extension of \(k\) if \(N/k\) is a Galois extension of number fields equipped with an isomorphism \(\mathrm{Gal}(N/k) \rightarrow \Gamma\). If \(N\) is a tame \(\Gamma\)-extension of \(k\) then the ring of integers \(\mathcal{O}_{N}\) is a locally free module of rank \(1\) over the group ring \(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma]\), and its structure as such is determined up to stable isomorphism by its class \((\mathcal{O}_{N})_{\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma]}\) in the locally free class group \(\mathrm{Cl}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\). The set \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\) of realizable classes is defined to be the subset of \(\mathrm{Cl}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\) consisting of the classes \((\mathcal{O}_{N})_{\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma]}\) as \(N\) runs through all tame \(\Gamma\)-extensions of \(k\). It is a conjecture that \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\) is in fact a subgroup of \(\mathrm{Cl}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\). This has been proven by \textit{L. R. McCulloh} in the case that \(\Gamma\) is abelian see [J. Reine Angew. Math. 375/376, 259--306 (1987; Zbl 0619.12008)]. However, much less is known in the non-abelian case; indeed, a proof that \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\) is non-empty would solve the inverse Galois problem for \(\Gamma\) over \(k\). The article under review determines \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\) for certain metabelian groups under a mild restriction on \(k\). In particular, the results show that \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\) is indeed a subgroup of \(\mathrm{Cl}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\) in the cases under consideration. Let \(p\) be a prime and assume that \(k\) contains a primitive \(p\)th root of unity. Let \(\Gamma\) be the semidirect product \(V \rtimes C\) of an elementary abelian group \(V\) of order \(p^{r}\) by any cyclic group \(C\) of order \(m>1\) that acts faithfully on \(V\) and makes \(V\) into an irreducible \(\mathbb{F}_{p}[C]\)-module. The authors show that this can occur if and only if \(m\) is a divisor of \(p^{r}-1\) that does not divide \(p^{s}-1\) for any \(s<r\). A family of examples is given by the semidirect products \(\mathbb{F}_{p^{r}} \rtimes \mathbb{F}_{p^{r}}^{\times}\) with the natural action; in particular, \(\mathbb{F}_{3} \rtimes \mathbb{F}_{3}^{\times} \simeq S_{3}\) and \(\mathbb{F}_{4} \rtimes \mathbb{F}_{4}^{\times} \simeq A_{4}\). Viewing \(C\) and \(V\) as subgroups of \(\Gamma\), we have the inclusion homomorphisms \[ \iota^{C}: C \longrightarrow \Gamma, \qquad \iota^{V}: V \longrightarrow \Gamma. \] These induce homomorphisms of class groups \[ \iota^{C}_{*}: \mathrm{Cl}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[C]) \longrightarrow \mathrm{Cl}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma]), \qquad \iota^{V}_{*}: \mathrm{Cl}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[V]) \longrightarrow \mathrm{Cl}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma]). \] Using McCulloh's aforementioned result that the realizable classes form a subgroup in the abelian case, we therefore have subgroups \(\iota^{C}_{*}\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[C])\) and \(\iota^{V}_{*}\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[V])\) of \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\). The main result of the article under review is as follows. In the situation of the above paragraph, we have \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma]) = (\iota^{C}_{*}\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[C]))(\iota^{V}_{*}\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[V]))\). It follows immediately that \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\) is indeed a subgroup of \(\mathrm{Cl}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\). (The authors also give an alternative description involving \(\iota^{C}_{*}\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[C])\), a certain Stickelberger ideal, and the kernel of a map between locally free class groups induced by the canonical surjection \(\Gamma \rightarrow C=\Gamma/V\).) Moreover, given any finite set \(S\) of places of \(k\) and any class \(\mathcal{A} \in \mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\), there are infinitely many \(\Gamma\)-extensions \(N\) of \(k\) with \((\mathcal{O}_{N})_{\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma]}=\mathcal{A}\), and \(N\) can be chosen to satisfy the following properties: \(N/k\) is unramified at all places in \(S\), and every intermediate field \(F \neq k\) of \(N/k\) is ramified at some finite place of \(k\). This extends and refines the results of the authors with \textit{C. Greither} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 601, 1--27 (2006; Zbl 1137.11069)] for \(p=2\), respectively of \textit{C. Bruche} and the second author [J. Number Theory 128, No. 4, 954--978 (2008; Zbl 1189.11051)] for \(p>2\); these only cover the case \(m=p^{r}-1\) and only determine the image \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{M})\) of \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\) under the extension of scalars from \(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma]\) to a maximal order \(\mathcal{M} \supset \mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma]\) in \(k[\Gamma]\). Moreover, this is a generalisation of the calculation of \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[A_{4}])\) (the case \(p=r=2\)) in [the authors, Compos. Math. 141, No. 3, 573--582 (2005; Zbl 1167.11319)]. The proof of this result proceeds via a relative version. Given a tame \(C\)-extension \(E\) of \(k\), we say that \(N\) is a \(\Gamma\)-extension of \(k\) relative to \(E\) if \(E \subset N\) and the isomorphism \(\mathrm{Gal}(N/k) \rightarrow \Gamma\) associated to \(N\) induces the given isomorphism \(\mathrm{Gal}(E/k) \rightarrow C = \Gamma / V\). For a fixed choice of \(E\), there is an analogous version of the result described in the above paragraph, which in particular describes the set \(\mathcal{R}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma],E) \subseteq \mathrm{Cl}(\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma])\) of classes \((\mathcal{O}_{N})_{\mathcal{O}_{k}[\Gamma]}\) where \(N\) runs through all tame \(\Gamma\)-extensions of \(k\) relative to \(E\).