On Steinitz classes of nonabelian Galois extensions and \(p\)-ary cyclic Hamming codes (Q2436763)

Let \(k\) be a number field with ring of integers \(\mathcal{O}_{k}\) and class group \(\mathrm{Cl}(k)\). Suppose that \(M\) is a finitely generated, torsion free \(\mathcal{O}_{k}\)-module of rank \(n\). Then there exists an ideal \(I\) of \(\mathcal{O}_{k}\) such that \(M \simeq \mathcal{O}_{k}^{n-1} \oplus I\). The class of \(I\) in \(\mathrm{Cl}(k)\), which only depends on \(M\), is called the Steinitz class of \(M\). The structure of \(M\) as an \(\mathcal{O}_{k}\)-module is determined up to isomorphism by its rank and its Steinitz class; for instance, \(M\) is a free \(\mathcal{O}_{k}\)-module if and only if its Steinitz class is trivial. Fix a finite group \(\Gamma\). If \(K/k\) is an at most tamely ramified Galois extension with Galois group isomorphic to \(\Gamma\), then the ring of integers \(\mathcal{O}_{K}\) determines a Steinitz class in \(\mathrm{Cl}(k)\). Let \(R_{t}(k,\Gamma)\) denote the subset of \(\mathrm{Cl}(k)\) of all such classes (\(t\) for tame and \(R\) for realizable). It is a conjecture that \(R_{t}(k,\Gamma)\) is in fact a subgroup of \(\mathrm{Cl}(k)\) for any choice of \(k\) and \(\Gamma\). Now let \(p\) be a prime number and let \(\mathbb{F}_{p}\) be the finite field with \(p\) elements. Let \(V\) be an \(\mathbb{F}_{p}\)-vector space of dimension \(r \geq 2\), let \(C\) be a cyclic group of order \((p^{r}-1)/(p-1)\) with \(\mathrm{gcd}(r,p-1)=1\), and let \(\rho\) be a faithful and irreducible \(\mathbb F_{p}\)-representation of \(C\) in \(V\). Let \(\Gamma\) be the semi-direct product \(V \rtimes_{\rho} C\). In the article under review, the authors give an explicit description of \(R_{t}(k,\Gamma)\) for any number field \(k\) and thereby show that it is indeed a subgroup of \(\mathrm{Cl}(k)\) for this choice of \(\Gamma\). The properties of the \(p\)-ary cyclic Hamming code play an important role in the proof.