On Shintani's ray class invariant for totally real number fields (Q2655164)

This article considers Shintani invariants associated to ray classes of a totally real field \(F\). More precisely, the author takes a ray class \({\mathfrak C}\) in the narrow class-group modulo an integral ideal \({\mathfrak f}\) and associates to it a real number \(X({\mathfrak C})\) defined in terms of derivatives of partial \(\zeta\)-functions at the special point \(s=0\). Similar invariants had been considered for real quadratic fields by Shintani, Arakawa, Tangedal, Yoshida and the author himself. The particular merits of the present article are the removal of the restriction on the absolute degree of the field \(F\) and the connections made with Stark units, as discussed below. The author establishes a number of properties of the Shintani invariant. Firstly, it factorizes as a product \[ X({\mathfrak C})= \prod^n_{i=1} X_i({\mathfrak C}), \] where \(n= [F:\mathbb Q]\) and \(X_i({\mathfrak C})\) can be thought of as the contribution from the \(i\)th real place of \(F\) (after having chosen an ordering of these places). This factorization can be seen as the result of (a) the ability of \(X({\mathfrak C})\) to be expressed in terms of a certain multiple sine function associated with \(\mathbb R^n\), and (b) the fact that such a multiple sine function has a natural componentwise decomposition. The article addresses the question of how the real numbers \(X_i({\mathfrak C})\) are affected when the signature of \({\mathfrak C}\) is changed at some real place. As the author explains, a corollary of this is a description of the value of the first derivative of a certain \(L\)-function \(L(s,\chi)\) at \(s= 0\) in terms of some particular factor \(X_i({\mathfrak C})\). He moreover emphasizes that this \(X_i({\mathfrak C})\) corresponds to the unique real place at which the signature of \(\chi\) is positive. As such, assuming the integral refinement of Stark's Conjecture for \(L\)-functions with a simple zero at \(s=0\), the real number \(X_i({\mathfrak C})\) is the absolute value, at a suitable real place, of a Stark element associated to an abelian extension of \(F\).