On Galois groups of unramified pro-\(p\) extensions (Q943356)

Let \(p\) be an odd prime satisfying Vandiver's conjecture. Denote the \(p\)th cyclotomic field \(\mathbb{Q}(\zeta_p)\) by \(F\). Denote by \(K\) the cyclotomic \(\mathbb{Z}_p\)-extension \(\mathbb{Q}(\zeta_{p^{\infty}})\) over \(F\) with Galois group \(\text{Gal}({K}/{F})=\Gamma\). Also denote by \(\tilde{F}\) the composition of all \(\mathbb{Z}_p\)-extensions of \(F\) with Galois group \(\text{Gal}(\tilde{F}/F)=\tilde{\Gamma}\). Let \(G_K\) be the Galois group of the maximal unramified pro-\(p\) extension of \(K\), and let \(X_{\tilde{F}}\) be the Galois group of the maximal unramified abelian pro-\(p\) extension of \(\tilde{F}\). Greenberg conjectured that \(X_{\tilde{F}}\) is pseudo-null as a \(\mathbb{Z}_p[[\tilde{\Gamma}]]\)-module. Using the special values of a cup product pairing on cyclotomic \(p\)-units, the author gives a lower bound for the height of the annihilator of \(X_{\tilde{F}}\) as an Iwasawa module. As a corollary, Greenberg's conjecture holds for \(p<1,000\). For the structure of \(G_K\), the author gives an necessary and sufficient condition for \(G_K\) to be abelian under some assumptions on Bernoulli numbers. As a corollary, the group \(G_K\) is abelian for \(p<1,000\).