Simultaneous indivisibility of class numbers of pairs of real quadratic fields (Q2673048)

Let \(D>0\) be a fundamental discriminant and let \(t\) be a square-free integer. In [\textit{D. Byeon}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 132, No. 11, 3137--3140 (2004; Zbl 1061.11054)] it is proved that there are infinitely many \(D\) with a positive density such that the class numbers of both the quadratic fields \(\mathbb Q(\sqrt D)\) and \(\mathbb Q(\sqrt {tD})\) are indivisible by 3. Following the method used to prove this result, the authors of the present paper prove that if \(t\) is any integer such that \(t\geq 1\) and \(t\equiv 0\pmod 4\), then there exist infinitely many \(D\) with positive density such that the class numbers of the quadratic fields \(\mathbb Q(\sqrt D)\) and \(\mathbb Q(\sqrt{D+t})\) are indivisible by 3. The authors demonstrate that the analogous result for imaginary quadratic fields cannot be obtained by the same method. As an application of their result the authors show that if \(t\) is any integer such that \(t\geq 1\) and \(t\equiv 0\pmod {12}\), then there are infinitely many pairs of real quadratic fields \(\mathbb Q(\sqrt D)\) and \(\mathbb Q(\sqrt{D+t})\) such that the Iwasawa \(\lambda\)-invariant of these fields for the prime 3 has value 0. This supports the conjecture by R. Greenberg which states that if \(p\) is any prime and \(K\) is any totally real number field, then the Iwasawa \(\lambda\)-invariant of \(K\) for the prime \(p\) has value 0.