Dyadic ramification and quartic number fields (Q687548)

Let \(p(x)=x^ 4+ bx^ 2+d\) be irreducible in \(\mathbb{Z}[x]\) and \(E=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt {\sigma})\) where \(\sqrt {\sigma}\) is a root of \(p(x)\). The author uses Weil's additive character on the rational Witt ring to provide reasonable criteria in terms of \(b\) and \(d\) for the rational prime 2 to be unramified in \(E\). Let \(m\) be the square free part of \(b^ 2-4d\). Then 2 is unramified in \(E\) if and only if (i) \(m\equiv 1\pmod 4\); (ii) \(d=2^ s\cdot u\) with \(s\equiv 0\pmod 2\) and \(u\equiv 1\pmod 4\), (iii) \(\sigma_ 2 \langle E\rangle =-1\) where \[ \sigma_ 2 \langle E\rangle= (-2,d)_ 2\cdot (-1,-m)_ 2\cdot (-2b,-md)_ 2\cdot r_ 2(d). \] In (iii) the symbols \((u,v)_ 2\) are quadratic Hilbert norm residue symbols and \(r_ 2(d)\) is the 2-adic local root number of \(d\). The value of \(r_ 2(d)\) is explicitly determined depending only on the class of \(d\) in \(\mathbb{Q}_ 2^*/ \mathbb{Q}_ 2^{*2}\) where \(\mathbb{Q}_ 2\) denotes the 2-adic completion of \(\mathbb{Q}\). As an application of these results, the author gives necessary and sufficient conditions for 2 to be unramified in the field \(E=F(\sqrt {\varepsilon})\) where \(\varepsilon\) is the fundamental unit of the field \(F=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt {m})\).