Using continued fractions to compute Iwasawa lambda invariants of imaginary quadratic number fields (Q2337581)

Summary: Let \(\ell > 3\) be a prime such that \(\ell \equiv 3\pmod 4\) and \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{\ell})\) has class number 1. Then Hirzebruch and Zagier noticed that the class number of \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{- \ell})\) can be expressed as \(h(- \ell) = (1 / 3)(b_1 + b_2 + \cdots + b_m) - m\) where the \(b_i\) are partial quotients in the ``minus'' continued fraction expansion \(\sqrt{\ell} = [[b_0; \overline{b_1, b_2, \ldots, b_m}]]\). For an odd prime \(p \ne \ell\), we prove an analogous formula using these \(b_i\) which computes the sum of Iwasawa lambda invariants \(\lambda_p(- \ell) + \lambda_p(- 4)\) of \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{- \ell})\) and \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{- 1})\). In the case that \(p\) is inert in \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{- \ell})\), the formula pleasantly simplifies under some additional technical assumptions.