Class numbers of cyclotomic function fields (Q4257589)

Let \({\mathbb F}_q\) be the finite field of \(q\) elements, \(q\) a \(p\)-power, \(k= {\mathbb F}_q(T)\) be the rational function field and let \(A= {\mathbb F}_q[T]\). For an irreducible polynomial \(P \in A\), we consider the tower: \(k \subseteq k(\Lambda_P) \subseteq k(\Lambda_{P^2}) \subseteq \ldots \subseteq k(\Lambda_{P^n}) \subseteq \ldots\) where \(k(\Lambda_{P^n})\) is the Carlitz-Hayes cyclotomic function field associated to \(P^n\). The maximal real subfield \(k(\Lambda_{P^n})^+\) of \(k(\Lambda_{P^n})\) is defined as the maximal subfield of \(k(\Lambda_{P^n})\) where the infinite prime \((1/T)\) of \(k\) splits completely. Let \(h_n= h(k(\Lambda_{P^n}))\) and \(h^+_n= h^+ (k(\Lambda_{P^n}))\) be the class numbers of \(k(\Lambda_{P^n})\) and \(k(\Lambda_{P^n})^+\) respectively. We have \(h^+_n | h_n\). Let \(h_n^-= h_n / h^+_n\). The main results of this paper are: (1) If \(\deg P= 1\), then \(h^-_n \equiv h^+_n \equiv 1 \bmod p\) (in particular we have that \(p\) does not divide \(h_n, h_n^+, h_n^-\)) (Theorems 2.3 and 2.4). (2) If \(\ell\) is a rational prime number such that \(\ell\) does not divide \(\deg P\) if \(\ell= p\). Let \(h_n (\ell)\) denote the \(\ell\)-part of \(h_n\). Then \(h_n (\ell) \equiv h_1 (\ell) \bmod p\) (Theorem 2.9). (3) If \(\ell | q- 1\) and if \(a_0\) is the exact power of \(\ell\) dividing \(q- 1\), then the exponent of \(\ell\) dividing \(h_n^-\) is at least \(a_0 (q^{(n-1)\deg P}- 1)\) (Theorem 3.1). (4) The exponent of \(p\) dividing \(h_n^\pm\) is at least \( {a^\pm} \over {p-1}\) \( {q^{(n-1) \deg P}- 1} \over {n}\) where \(a^\pm\) is a non-negative integer depending only on \(k(\Lambda_p)\). In the number field case, if \(K_n= {\mathbb Q} (\zeta_{p^n})\) where \(\zeta_{p^n}= e^{(2 \pi i / p^n)}\), Iwasawa proved that if \(p^{e_n}\) is the exact power of \(p\) dividing \(h(K_n)\), then \(e_n= \mu p^n+ \lambda n+ \gamma\) for \(n\) sufficiently large, where \(\mu\) and \(\lambda\) are non-negative integers and \(\gamma\) is an integer. Ferrero and Washington proved that \(\mu= 0\). Example 4.1 in this paper shows that there are cases where \(a^- \neq 0\). Therefore the analog of Ferrero-Washington's result is false for cyclotomic function fields. The reason might be related to the fact that \(\text{Gal} (\bigcup_{n=1}^{\infty} k(\Lambda_{p^n})/k) \cong {\mathbb Z}_p^{\infty} \times C_{q^d- 1}\), where \(C_i\) denotes the cyclic group of \(i\) elements and \(d = \deg P\), which is much larger than in the number field case where \(\text{Gal}(\bigcup_{n=1}^{\infty} {\mathbb Q} (\zeta_{2 p^n})/ {\mathbb Q}(\zeta_{2 p})) \cong {\mathbb Z}_p\). It is also shown that if \(\deg P > 1\), then (1) is no longer true, and that for \(P\) of degree \(1\) and \(q\) large, \(h_2^-\) is asymptotic to \(q^{q(q-2)/2}\).