The construction of the Hilbert genus fields of real cyclic quartic fields (Q2108521)

Let \(k\) be a number field and let \(H(k)\) be its Hilbert class field which, by class field theory, has the property that the Galois group \(G := \mathrm{Gal}(H(k)/k) \cong Cl(k)\), the class group of \(k\). The Hilbert genus field \(E(k)\) is the subfield of \(H(k)\) fixed by \(G^2\); hence \(\mathrm{Gal}(E(k)/k) \cong G/G^2\). By Kummer theory, \(E(k)\) is obtained as \(k(\sqrt{\Delta(k)})\) for a unique subgroup \(\Delta(k)\) of \(k^{\ast}\) containing \((k^{\ast})^2\) such that the latter group is of finite index in \(\Delta(k)\). Therefore, determining the field \(E(k)\) is the same as finding generators for the corresponding group \(\Delta(k)\). The Hilbert genus field \(E(k)\) has been determined for various quartic fields by a number of authors. A field \(k\) is a cyclic, quartic extension of \(\mathbb{Q}\) if, and only if, \(E(k) = \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{a(d+b \sqrt{d})})\) where \(a, b, c, d\) are integers such that \(d = b^2 + c^2\) is square-free with \(b,c > 0\), and \(a\) is an odd square-free integer relatively prime to \(d\). Earlier, the first two authors of this paper determined the Hilbert genus fields of certain imaginary cyclic quartic fields. In the paper under review, the authors determine the Hilbert genus field \(E(k)\) for real, cyclic quartic fields of the form \(k = \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{a \varepsilon_p \sqrt{p}})\) for primes \(p \equiv 1\) mod \(4\) or \(p=2\), and \(a>0\) relatively prime to \(p\). Here, \(\varepsilon_p\) is the fundamental unit of \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{p})\). Combining earlier results and those of this paper, we may deduce that we have constructions of the Hilbert genus fields of all abelian, quartic fields that have quadratic subfields whose class numbers are odd. If \(h\) is the class number of \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{p})\), determination of explicit generators for \(\Delta(k)\) (equivalently, of \(E(k)\)) for \(k = \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{a \varepsilon_p \sqrt{p}})\) involves the solutions of certain Diophantine equations of the form \[ x^2- py^2 = q^{\lambda h} \] where \(q \neq p\) is an odd prime dividing \(a\) and \(\lambda\) is \(1\) or \(3\) (depending on \(p\)). The expressions as well as their proofs require consideration of several special cases.