Class numbers with many prime factors (Q954875)

Let \(\mathbb K\) be a number field, and let \(Cl_\mathbb K\), resp. \(h_\mathbb K\) denote the class group, resp. the class number of \(\mathbb K\). Then the following theorem is proved: Theorem 1. Let \(d\geq 2\) be a positive integer. Then there exists a sequence of number fields \(\mathbb K\) of degree \(d\) whose class numbers tend to infinity such that the inequality \[ \omega(h_\mathbb K)\gg \frac{\log\log h_\mathbb K}{\log\log\log h_\mathbb K} \] holds for each of these fields \(\mathbb K\). The implied constant depends on \(d\). This generalizes and improves the authors' earlier result [Int. J. Number Theory 4, No. 4, 597--611 (2008; Zbl 1165.11081), Theorem 2]. For the proof the authors follow Nakano's construction [\textit{S. Nakano}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 358, 61--75 (1985; Zbl 0559.12004)] of number fields \(\mathbb K\) having class number divisible by a fixed number \(n\). Here they give an explicit upper bound on the absolute value \(D_\mathbb K\) of the discriminant of such a number field. Moreover, the authors give an alternative and more direct proof for the case of the real quadratic fields achieving the same bound.