Elliptic Units and Class Fields of Global Function Fields (Q4384046)

Let \(K\) be a global function field. Choose a place \(\infty\) of \(K\) of degree \(\delta\), and let \(A\) be the Dedekind ring of all elements of \(K\) integral outside \(\infty\). Denote by \(H_A\) the Hilbert class field of \((K,\infty)\), i.e. the maximal unramified abelian extension of \(K\) in which \(\infty\) is completely decomposed. Using sgn-normalized rank one Drinfeld \(A\)-modules and their analytic uniformization, one can construct elliptic units in \(H_A\). For an intermediate field \(L\) between \(K\) and \(H_A\) the authors exhibit a generator of \(L\) over \(K\) in terms of Drinfeld modules. Then they derive several class number formulas relating the class number of \(L\) to indices of groups constructed from the elliptic units. This generalizes the results for \(\delta=1\) by \textit{D. Hayes} [Prog. Math. 26, 321-340 (1982; Zbl 0499.12012)].