Exterior powers in Iwasawa theory (Q2119381)

A `main conjecture' in Iwasawa theory usually asserts that the characteristic ideal of a natural Iwasawa module \(X\) is generated by a \(p\)-adic \(L\)-series. This might be seen as a statement about the first Chern class of \(X\). In joint work with \textit{G. Pappas} [Am. J. Math. 142, No. 2, 627--682 (2020; Zbl 1478.11134)] the authors started their investigation of higher (in particular second) Chern classes of Iwasawa modules. The main focus was on the Iwasawa theory over imaginary quadratic fields, where a fixed prime \(p\) splits. In the paper under review the authors generalize this result to general CM fields \(E\), where each prime over \(p\) in the maximal totally real subfield of \(E\) splits in \(E\). \par We now give some more background. Iwasawa theory studies objects of arithmetic interest along infinite towers of fields. Let \(F\) be a number field and let \(p\) be a prime. Iwasawa studied Galois extensions \(F_{\infty}\) of \(F\) with Galois group \(\Gamma = \mathrm{Gal}(F_{\infty}/F)\) isomorphic to \(\mathbb{Z}_p\). Each closed subgroup of \(\Gamma\) is of the form \(\Gamma^{p^n}\) for some \(n \in \mathbb{N}\), so that we obtain a tower of fields \[ F = F_0 \subset F_1 \subset \dots \subset F_{\infty}, \] where \(F_n\) is a cyclic extension of \(F\) of degree \(p^n\). Let \(A_n\) be the \(p\)-part of the class group of \(F_n\). Iwasawa showed that for sufficiently large \(n\) the cardinality of \(A_n\) is given by \[ |A_n| = p^{\mu p^n + \lambda n + \nu} \] for certain constants \(\mu\), \(\lambda\) and \(\nu\). These constants are invariants of the Iwasawa module \(X = \mathrm{Gal}(M/F_{\infty})\), where \(M\) is the maximal abelian unramified pro-\(p\)-extension of \(F_{\infty}\). Here `Iwasawa module' means that it is a compact module over the completed group ring (the Iwasawa algebra) \(\Lambda := \mathbb{Z}_p [[ \Gamma ]]\). In fact, \(X\) is finitely generated and torsion as a \(\Lambda\)-module. This implies that there is a `pseudo-isomorphism' (which in this situation just means that it has finite kernel and cokernel) \[ X \rightarrow \bigoplus_{i=1}^s \Lambda/p^{m_i} \oplus \bigoplus_{j = 1}^t \Lambda / F_j^{n_j}, \] where the \(F_j\) are irreducible Weierstraß polynomials (note that \(\Lambda\) is isomorphic to a power series ring \(\mathbb{Z}_p [[ T ]]\)). The characteristic ideal of \(X\) is the \(\Lambda\)-ideal generated by the characteristic polynomial \[ p^{\mu} \cdot \prod_{j=1}^{t} F_j^{n_j}, \] where \(\mu := \sum_{i=1}^{s} m_i\). Moreover, the \(\lambda\)-invariant of \(X\) is defined to be the degree of the characteristic polynomial, i.e.,\ \(\lambda = \sum_{j=1}^{t} n_j \deg(F_j)\). In particular, the invariants \(\mu\) and \(\lambda\) of \(X\) can be retrieved from the characteristic ideal. The latter might be interpreted as the `first Chern class' of \(X\). If it vanishes (and thus \(\mu = \lambda= 0\)), then \(X\) is finite, the invariant \(\nu\) is its `second Chern class' and is determined by \(p^{\nu} = |X|\). \par Let \(R\) be a local commutative Noetherian ring. In general, the `\(m\)-th Chern class' of an (appropriate) \(R\)-module \(X\) is an element in \(Z^m(R)\), the free abelian group generated by the prime ideals of \(R\) of height \(m\). Note that the prime ideals of height \(1\) in \(\Lambda\) are precisely the ideals generated by \(p\) and the irreducible Weierstraß polynomials, whereas the maximal ideal of \(\Lambda\) is the unique prime ideal of height \(2\). \par As we have already mentioned above, a `main conjecture' classically asserts that two ideals in a formal power series ring coincide. One ideal is the characteristic ideal of a natural torsion Iwasawa module, the other ideal is generated by a \(p\)-adic \(L\)-series. This might be seen as a statement about first Chern classes. However, a conjecture of \textit{R. Greenberg} [Adv. Stud. Pure Math. 30, 335--385 (2001; Zbl 0998.11054)] asserts that many interesting Iwasawa modules are `pseudo-null', i.e.,\ their first Chern classes vanish. This is the main motivation for studying higher Chern classes. \par Suppose that \(R\) is a regular integral domain with field of fractions \(Q\). The divisor homomorphism \[ \nu_1: Q^{\times} = K_1(Q) \rightarrow Z^1(R) \] in the case \(m=1\) is replaced by successively composing tame symbol maps in higher \(K\)-theory. This yields a map \[ \nu_m: \bigoplus K_m(Q) \rightarrow Z^m(R), \] where the sum is over a certain set of `Parshin chains', i.e.,\ ordered sequences \((\eta_0, \dots, \eta_{m-1})\) of points in \(\mathrm{Spec}(R)\), with each \(\eta_i\) is of height \(i\) and \(\eta_i \in \overline{\left\{\eta_{i-1} \right\}}\). The authors are mainly interested in the case \(m=2\), where all elements in \(K_2(Q)\) can be described in terms of Steinberg symbols by a theorem of Matsumoto. The map \(\nu_2\) then has a rather explicit description. \par The main result of the previous paper with Pappas roughly stated that the sum of the second Chern classes of (the \(\psi\)-eigenspace of) the unramified Iwasawa module and a certain dual thereof is given in terms of two Katz \(p\)-adic \(L\)-functions. \par The main obstacle in the present paper is that the relevant Iwasawa module \(X\) is in general not of rank \(1\). To remedy this, the authors replace \(X\) by its highest exterior power, which leads to the main result (the precise statement is too complicated to reproduce it here). If the rank is \(1\), the result has a particular clean formulation, which is a direct generalization of the previous result for imaginary quadratic fields. Finally, the authors reinterpret one of the terms in their main result as the second Chern class of a suitable Galois group if the rank is \(2\). \par For a generalization to an equivariant setting see recent work of \textit{T. Kataoka} [``Higher codimension behaviour in equivariant Iwasawa theory for CM-fields'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2103.13707}].