Lower bounds for regulators of number fields in terms of their discriminants (Q6159591)

The authors improve Silverman's lower bound on the regulator of a number field in terms of its discriminant. Let \(k\) be a number field of degree \(d\). Denote by \(r(k)\) the rank of its unit group, by \(\rho(k)\) the maximum of \(r(k')\) over all subfields \(k'\subsetneq k\), by \(Reg(k)\) its regulator and by \(D_k\) its discriminant. Recall that \textit{J. H. Silverman} established in [J. Number Theory 19, 437--442 (1984; Zbl 0552.12003)] that: \[ c_d\log(\gamma_d D_k)^{r(k)-\rho(k)} < \mathrm{Reg}(k), \] where \(c_d=2^{-4d^2}\) and \(\gamma_d=d^{-d^{\log_2(8d)}}\). If \(k\) is a CM field, then \(r(k)=\rho(k)\) and the lower bound is improved by \textit{E. Friedman}'s result [Invent. Math. 98, No. 3, 599--622 (1989; Zbl 0694.12006)]. In this article, the following improvement is obtained for a non-CM number field \(k\), with \(d\geq 3\) and \(r=r(k)\): \[ \frac{(2r)!}{(r!)^3}\bigg(\frac{\log\log d}{2\log d}\bigg)^{3\rho(k)}\bigg(\frac{\log(\gamma_dD_k)}{4d}\bigg)^{r-\rho(k)}\leq \mathrm{Reg}(k). \]