Conjectures of Brumer, Gross and Stark (Q776410)

Let \(L/K\) be a finite Galois extension with Galois group \(G\). The values at \(s=0\) of the Artin \(L\)-series for the irreducible characters of \(G\) can be used to construct a Stickelberger element \(\theta_{L/K}\) in the center of \(\mathbb C[G]\). When \(G\) is abelian, a conjecture of Brumer predicts that \(\theta_{L/K}\) can be used to construct annihilators of the ideal class group of \(L\), and the refinement by Stark predicts the generators of the resulting principal ideals. The present survey discusses extensions of these ideas to non-abelian \(G\) due to the author [Ann. Inst. Fourier 61, No. 6, 2577--2608 (2011; Zbl 1246.11176)] and \textit{D. Burns} [Invent. Math. 186, No. 2, 291--371 (2011; Zbl 1239.11128)]. These are then related to the equivariant Tamagawa number conjecture, the equivariant main conjecture of Iwasawa theory, and the conjecture of B. Gross on the order of vanishing of \(p\)-adic \(L\)-functions at \(s=0\). For the entire collection see [Zbl 1416.60012].