A study on functional independence of the Iwasawa power series (Q387881)

Let \(\lambda_1, \dots, \lambda_t\) be distinct Dirichlet characters of modulus \(N\). \textit{B. Bagchi} [Math. Z. 181, 319--334 (1982; Zbl 0479.10028)] has shown that the Dirichlet \(L\)-series \(L(s, \lambda_1), \dots, L(s, \lambda_t)\) do not satisfy any non-trivial algebraic-differential equation. The purpose of the article under review is to formulate a conjectural analogue of this result for Kubota-Leopoldt \(p\)-adic \(L\)-functions. To be more precise, let \(\chi\) be an even Dirichlet character and let \(p\) be a prime. For simplicity we will assume that \(p \not=2\) in this review. Write \(\chi = \theta \psi\), where \(\theta\) and \(\psi\) are characters of the first and second kind, respectively. Then the conductor of \(\theta\) is either \(N\) or \(pN\) for some integer \(N\) prime to \(p\). The Iwasawa power series \(f(T, \theta)\) is the unique power series in \(\mathbb Z_p[\theta][[T-1]]\) such that \[ 2 f(\chi(u)u^{-s}, \theta) = L_p(s,\chi), \] where \(u := 1 + pN\) and \(L_p(s, \chi)\) denotes the Kubota-Leopoldt \(p\)-adic \(L\)-function. Note that this slightly differs from the corresponding power series in Washington's book [\textit{L. C. Washington}, Introduction to cyclotomic fields. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Springer (1997; Zbl 0966.11047)]. Let \(K\) be a subfield of \(\overline{\mathbb Q}_p((T-1))\). The power series \(F_1, \dots, F_t\) in \(\overline{\mathbb Q}_p[[T-1]]\) are called algebraic-differential independent over \(K\) if the \(F_i^{(k)}(T) := (\frac{d}{dT})^k F_i(T)\) with \(1 \leq i \leq t\) and \(0 \leq k \leq m\) are algebraically independent over \(K\) for each integer \(m \geq 0\). When \(K\) is a subfield of \(\overline{\mathbb F}_p((T-1))\), the definition is exactly the same except that one restricts to \(m<p\). Let \(\pi\) be a uniformizer in a sufficiently large extension of \(\mathbb Q_p\). The author's conjecture now asserts the following. Suppose that \(\theta_1, \dots, \theta_t\) (resp. modulo \(\pi\)) are distinct even Dirichlet characters of modulus \(pN\). Then \(f(T,\theta_1), \dots, f(T, \theta_t)\) (resp. \(f(T,\theta_1) \mathrm{ mod } \pi, \dots, f(T, \theta_t) \mathrm{ mod } \pi\)) are algebraic-differential independent over \(\overline{\mathbb Q}_p(\mathbb Z_p)\) (resp. \(\overline{\mathbb F}_p(\mathbb Z_p)\)). Here, \(L(\mathbb Z_p)\) denotes the quotient field of the subalgebra of \(L[[T-1]]\) that consists of pseudo-polynomials, that is of finite sums \(\sum_{\alpha \in \mathbb Z_p} c_{\alpha} T^{\alpha}\), where \(c_{\alpha} \in L\) and \[ T^{\alpha} = \sum_{k=0}^{\infty} {\alpha \choose k} (T-1)^k. \] Note that the much weaker assertion that \(f(T, \theta) \not\equiv 0 \mathrm{ mod } \pi\) is a celebrated result of \textit{B. Ferrero} and \textit{L.C. Washington} [Ann. Math. (2) 109, 377--395 (1979; Zbl 0443.12001)]. The still much weaker result that this power series is irrational is due to \textit{W. Sinnott} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 382, 22--34 (1987; Zbl 0621.12015)]. The author also provides some evidence for this conjecture. For instance, he shows that \(f^{(k)}(T, \theta) \mathrm{ mod } \pi\) is transcendent over \(\overline{\mathbb F}_p(\mathbb Z_p)\). It is also verified that the power series \(f(T,\theta)\) for distinct \(\theta\)'s do not satisfy any non-trivial linear differential equation with coefficients in \(\overline{\mathbb Q}_p(\mathbb Z_p)\).