Totally \(p\)-adic numbers of small height in an abelian extension of \(\mathbb{Q}\) (Q6093271)

The (logarithmic Weil) height of an algebraic number \(\alpha\) is defined by \[ h(\alpha )=\frac{1}{d}(\log a+\sum_{j=1}^{d}\log^{+}\left\vert \alpha _{j}\right\vert ), \] where \(\alpha_{1},\ldots,\alpha_{d}\in \mathbb{C}\) are the the conjugates of \(\alpha\), the positive number \(a\) is the leading coefficient of the (normalized) minimal polynomial of \(\alpha\), and \(\log^{+}\left\vert\alpha_{j}\right\vert =\max \{0, \log\left\vert\alpha_{j}\right\vert\}\) for each \(j\in \{1,\ldots,d\}\). Assume that \(\alpha\) is nonzero and not a root a unity, so that \(h(\alpha)>0\). In [Acta Arith. 26, 329--331 (1975; Zbl 0275.12004)], \textit{A. Schinzel} showed that if \(\alpha\) is totally real, then \(h(\alpha)\geq\frac{1}{2}\log \frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}\), and in [J. Number Theory 80, No. 2, 260--272 (2000; Zbl 0973.11092], \textit{F. Amoroso} and \textit{R. Dvornicich} proved that \(h(\alpha)\geq \frac{\log 5}{12}\) when \(\alpha\) belongs to an abelian extension of \(\mathbb{Q}\). Let \(p\) be a prime number and let \(\mathbb{Q}_{p}\) be the field of \(p\)-adic numbers. An algebraic number is said to be totally \(p\)-adic if its minimal polynomial splits completely over \(\mathbb{Q}_{p};\) this concept extends the ``totally real'' notion to other completions of \(\mathbb{Q}.\) Let \(\tau _{d,p}\) be the smallest height of totally \(p\)-adic algebraic numbers of degree \(d,\) belonging to an abelian extension of \(\mathbb{Q}.\) In the paper under review, the author shows that \[ \tau _{2,p}=\begin{cases} \frac{1}{2}\log \frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}&\text{if }p\equiv 1,4\bmod5,\\ \frac{1}{2}\log 2&\text{if } p\equiv 0,2,3\bmod5, \end{cases} \] and generally there is a natural number \(N=N(d)\) such that \(\tau_{d,p}\) depends only on \(p\bmod N\).