Annihilators of minus class groups of imaginary Abelian fields (Q2461183)

Let \(\ell\) denote an odd prime, \(L\) an imaginary Abelian number field and \(A_L^-\) the \(\ell\)-primary part of the minus class group of \(L\). It was shown by \textit{W. Sinnott} [Invent. Math. 62, 181--234 (1980; Zbl 0465.12001)] that the Stickelberger ideal annihilates \(A_L^-\). The authors investigate whether the \(\mathbb Z_{\ell} [\Gamma]\)-module \(A_L^-\) can have some larger annihilator ideal, where \(\Gamma\) is the \(\ell\)-part of \(\text{Gal} (L/\mathbb Q)\). In particular, they consider special cases where \(L\) is the compositum of an imaginary quadratic field \(F\) and a number field \(K\), which is an elementary Abelian or a cyclic \(\ell\)-extension of \(\mathbb Q\). For example, let \(p_1, \dots, p_s\) (\(s \geq 1\)) be different primes, all congruent to \(1 \bmod (\ell)\), let \(K_i\) denote the cyclic field of degeree \(\ell\) and conductor \(p_i\), and put \(K=K_1 \dots K_s\) their compositum. Let \(F\) be an imaginary quadratic number field, in which each \(p_i\) splits, and put \(L=FK\). Then Theorem 2.4 shows that as soon as the \(\mathbb Z_{\ell} [\Gamma]\)-module \(A_L^-\) requires at least \(s+2\) generators, its \(\mathbb Z_{\ell} [\Gamma]\)-annihilator is strictly larger than the Stickelberger ideal. Numerical examples using PARI show that in the case of \(s\) or \(s+1\) generators both situations can occur. For the proofs, Fitting ideals and their relations to the Stickelberger ideal are studied, and a recent result of \textit{M. Kurihara} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 561, 39--86 (2003; Zbl 1056.11063)] is used.