Counterexamples to a conjecture of Lemmermeyer

DOI10.1007/S000130050319MaRDI QIDQ1291142zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Nigel Boston, C. R. Leedham-Green

Publication date 4 October 1999

Published in Archiv der Mathematik (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9808146

zbMATH Keywords

2-groupsclass field towersinvolutionsquadratic number fields

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Class field theory (11R37) Finite nilpotent groups, (p)-groups (20D15)

Abstract: We produce infinitely many finite 2-groups that do not embed with index 2 in any group generated by involutions. This disproves a conjecture of Lemmermeyer and restricts the possible Galois groups of unramified 2-extensions, Galois over the rationals, of quadratic number fields.

Review text

Let \(K\) be a quadratic number field, and let \(L\) be an unramified \(2\)-extension of \(K\) which is normal over \(\mathbb Q\) (the Hilbert \(2\)-class field of \(K\) has this property). By Chebotarev's monodromy theorem, \(\Gamma = \text{Gal}(L/\mathbb Q)\) is generated by involutions (elements of order \(2\)); in particular, \(G = \text{Gal}(L/K)\) is a subgroup of index \(2\) in \(\Gamma\). Let us say that a \(2\)-group \(G\) has property P if \(G\) is a subgroup of index \(2\) in a group generated by involutions. In an unpublished manuscript, the reviewer conjectured that every finite \(2\)-group has property P; clearly finite abelian \(2\)-groups do. In this paper, the authors show by a computation using the MAGMA databases that exactly two out of the \(267\) groups of order \(64\) do not have property P, and then go on to construct infinitely many counterexamples by hand.

Recommendations

• Embedding 2-groups in groups generated by involutions
• Automorphism groups of 2-groups.
• On 2-extensions of the rationals with restricted ramification
• On unramified Galois $2$-groups over $\mathbb Z_2$-extensions of real quadratic fields

Cited in

(4)

• On the Sternfeld-Levin counterexamples to a conjecture of Chogoshvili-Pontrjagin
• Embedding 2-groups in groups generated by involutions
• Galois groups of tamely ramified \(p\)-extensions
• Counterexamples of Lefschetz hyperplane type results for movable cones

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