On generalised Kummer congruences and higher rank Iwasawa theory at arbitrary weights (Q2186066)

In [Algebra Number Theory 11, No. 7, 1527--1571 (2017; Zbl 1455.11158)] \textit{D. Burns} et al. formulate a natural `higher rank' main conjecture of Iwasawa theory over arbitrary (finite) abelian extensions of number fields. Their conjecture predicts the existence of an Iwasawa-theoretical zeta element that interpolates in a natural way the values at zero of \(L\)-functions of Dirichlet characters and extends the classical formulation of main conjectures over totally real fields. In a subsequent article [``On Stark elements of arbitrary weight and their \(p\)-adic families'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1607.06607}], \textit{D. Burns} et al. associated to finite abelian extensions of number fields a natural notion of generalized Stark elements of arbitrary rank and weight. In this setting, the `rank' measures the exterior powers of cohomology groups within which the elements are constructed whilst the `weight' is related to the integer point at which the leading terms of Dirichlet \(L\)-functions are being considered. In the above-mentioned works, Burns et al. introduced a natural notion of generalized Stark elements of arbitrary rank and weight and conjectured a precise congruence relation between Stark elements of a fixed rank and different weights. This conjecture was shown to simultaneously generalize both the classical congruences of Kummer and the explicit reciprocity law of Artin-Hasse and Iwasawa. In this article under review, the author shows that the congruence conjecture also implies that the Iwasawa theoretical `zeta element' that is conjecturally associated to the multiplicative group has good interpolation properties at arbitrary even integers.