On the p-adic expansion of units of cyclotomic fields (Q581588)

Let p be an odd prime and let \(n\geq 0\). The author studies the p-adic expansions of units in the \(p^{n+1}st\) cyclotomic field, generalizing work of \textit{P. Dénes} [Publ. Math. Debrecen 3, 17-23 (1954; Zbl 0056.033)] and the reviewer [Ill. J. Math. 23, 635-647 (1979; Zbl 0423.12005)], which treated the case \(n=0\). More precisely, let \({\mathbb{Q}}(\zeta_{p^{n+1}})\) be the \(p^{n+1}st\) cyclotomic field and let \({\mathbb{Q}}(\zeta_{p^{n+1}})^+\) be its maximal real subfield. Let \(K_{n+1}\) be a subfield of \({\mathbb{Q}}(\zeta_{p^{n+1}})^+\) and let \(E_{n+1}\) be its unit group. Let E be a subgroup of finite index. Let \(\pi\) generate the prime of \(K_{n+1}\) above p. The author proves the existence of a basis \(\{\eta_ 1,...,\eta_ r\}\) for \(E/\{\pm 1\}\) such that \(\eta_ i^{p^ n}\equiv a_ i+b_ i\pi^{c_ i}(mod \pi^{c_ i+1})\) for all i, with \(p\nmid a_ ib_ i\) and where \(c_ i\) is of the form \(i+(p^ n(p-1)/2d)u_ i\) for some non-negative integer \(u_ i=u_ i(E)\), which depends only on E and i. It is shown that if \(E'\) is a subgroup of E then \(v_ p([E:E'])=\sum^{r}_{i=1}(u_ i(E')-u_ i(E))\). When \(K_{n+1}={\mathbb{Q}}(\zeta_{p^{n+1}})^+\), E is the full group of units, and \(E'\) is the subgroup of cyclotomic units, this yields an expression for the p-adic valuation of the class number of \({\mathbb{Q}}(\zeta_{p^{n+1}})^+\). The values of \(u_ i\) for the cyclotomic units can be calculated in terms of p-adic L-functions.