Irreducible characters with bounded root Artin conductor (Q2278134)

Let $K$ be a finite Galois extension of $\mathbb Q$ and let $\chi$ be a character of a linear representation of $\mathrm{Gal}(K/\mathbb Q)$. In previous papers of the author and of Odlyzko some lower bounds for the root Artin conductor $f_\chi^{1/\chi(1)}$ of $\chi$ were proved. In the present paper the author addresses the question of how far from being optimal these estimates are. To that aim she considers a field $K$ with an infinite Hilbert $p$-class field tower and she sets $K_n$ to be the Hilbert $p$-class field of $K_{n-1}$, for $n\geq 1$, and $K_0=K$. Then she proves the existence of irreducible characters $\chi_n$ of $\mathrm{Gal}(K_n/\mathbb Q)$ for which $\chi_n(1)>2^{(n-1)/2}$ and $f_{\chi_n}^{1/\chi_n(1)}\leq |D_{K/\mathbb Q}|$, where $D_{K/\mathbb Q}$ is the discriminant of $K/\mathbb Q$.