Computation of Iwasawa lambda invariants for imaginary quadratic fields (Q2641348)

A method is presented for computing the Iwasawa lambda invariant \(\lambda_ p(K)\) of the basic \({\mathbb{Z}}_ p\)-extension of an imaginary quadratic field K. Let d denote the discriminant of K. The authors have determined all pairs (d,p) with \(d<1000\) and \(p<10^ 7\) such that \(\lambda_ p(K)>1\) and moreover computed the exact value of \(\lambda_ p(K)\) up to \(p<20000\). The results are given in a table. Previous computations of \(\lambda_ p(K)\), the most extensive of them done by \textit{R. Ernvall} and the reviewer [Math. Comput. 49, 281-294 (1987; Zbl 0601.12010)], were mainly restricted to primes \(\leq 11\). It is easy to find out whether \(\lambda_ p(K)>0\), and there is a criterion by \textit{R. Gold} [J. Number Theory 6, 369-373 (1974; Zbl 0288.12004)] characterizing the cases with \(\lambda_ p(K)>1\). The authors' method starts using that criterion and then determines \(\lambda_ p(K)\) by means of explicit expressions of the coefficients of the p-adic L-function associated to K. If \(\lambda_ p(K)\) exceeds 1, it most frequently equals 2, and in all cases \(\lambda_ p(K)<p^ 2\). The computation becomes more tedious if \(\lambda_ p(K)\geq p\), but this occurs for \(p=3\) only (for \(p>3\), there are such examples at larger values of d; see the first paper cited above).