Selmer groups and quadratic reciprocity (Q998248)

The 2-Selmer group \(\text{Sel}(F)\) of a number field \(F\) is defined as the group \(\{\alpha\in F^*:(\alpha)= A^2\) for some element \(A\) in the ideal class group \(\text{C1}(F)\) of \(F\}\) modulo \(F^{*^2}\). As the author remarks, the elements \(\omega\in F^*\) such that \(\omega F^{*^2}\in \text{Sel}(F)\) were called singular in the classical literature, e. g. in \S61 of \textit{E. Hecke} [Vorlesungen über die Theorie der algebraischen Zahlen, Leipzig (1923; JFM 49.0106.10)] and are called virtual units in the book \textit{H. Cohen} [Advanced topics in computational number theory, Springer (2000; Zbl 0977.11056), p. 231], where also the terminology ``Selmer group'' is introduced, because of an analogy with the concept of Selmer group in the theory of elliptic curves. The paper under review develops the theory of the 2-Selmer group and many applications in a modern language and gives proofs which are based on class field theory. For instance, a short proof of a result of \textit{A. Fröhlich} and \textit{J. V. Armitage} [Mathematika 14, 94--98 (1967; Zbl 0149.29501)] on the difference of the 2-ranks of the ideal class group in the strict and in the usual sense is obtained, and several applications of this result are described. Moreover, a certain subgroup of \(\text{Sel}(F)\) is used to generate class fields of \(F\), and the connection between Selmer groups and quadratic reciprocity is explained. The author mentions that he plans to use the results on Selmer groups presented here in two of his papers which are in preparation.