Circular annihilators of logarithmic class groups (Q6970362)

Let \(\ell\) be an odd prime number. Given a number field \(F\), one can define its logarithmic class group \(\tilde{\mathcal{C}\!\ell}_F\), which appears naturally in the study of the Iwasawa theory of the cyclotomic \(\mathbb{Z}_\ell\)-extension of \(F\). The Gross-Kuz'min conjecture predicts that the group \(\tilde{\mathcal{C}\!\ell}_F\) is finite. In particular, this is known to hold when \(F\) is abelian.\N\NWe assume from now on that \(F\) is a real abelian number field. Section~2 introduces the group of \textit{circular logarithmic units} \(\tilde{\mathcal{E}}_F^\circ\) as a \(\mathbb{Z}_\ell[G_F]\)-submodule of the group of logarithmic units \(\tilde{\mathcal{E}}_F\). The group \(\tilde{\mathcal{E}}_F^\circ\) can be seen as a logarithmic analogue of the group of circular units which is used by \textit{F. Thaine} [Ann. Math. (2) 128, No. 1, 1--18 (1988; Zbl 0665.12003)] and \textit{K. Rubin} [Invent. Math. 89, 511--526 (1987; Zbl 0628.12007)] to bound ideal class groups. Section 3 of the article is devoted to prove annihilation results for the logarithmic class group \(\tilde{\mathcal{C}\!\ell}_F\) in line with the annihilation results for the ideal class group obtained by Thaine, Rublin and others. In particular, the main theorem in the present work (Théorème 3.4) states that for any \(G_F\)-equivariant homomorphism \(\rho:\tilde{\mathcal{E}}_F\rightarrow \mathbb{Z}_\ell[G_F]\), the image \(\rho(\tilde{\mathcal{E}}^\circ_F)\) annihilates \(\tilde{\mathcal{C}\!\ell}_F\).