Cohen-Lenstra moments for some nonabelian groups

DOI10.5802/JTNB.1137MaRDI QIDQ2219650zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Brandon Alberts

Publication date 20 January 2021

Published in Journal de Théorie des Nombres de Bordeaux (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.07867

zbMATH Keywords

\(GI\)-extensionsclass-fieldsclass-groupsCohen-Lenstradihedral fieldsquadratic fieldsquaternionic fieldsunramified extensions

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Rate of growth of arithmetic functions (11N56) Class numbers, class groups, discriminants (11R29) Extensions, wreath products, and other compositions of groups (20E22) Automorphism groups of groups (20F28)

Abstract: Cohen and Lenstra detailed a heuristic for the distribution of odd p-class groups for imaginary quadratic fields. One such formulation of this distribution is that the expected number of surjections from the class group of an imaginary quadratic field k to a fixed odd abelian group is 1. Class field theory tells us that the class group is also the Galois group of the Hilbert class field, the maximal unramified abelian extension of k, so we could equivalently say the expected number of unramified G-extensions of k is 1/#Aut(G) for a fixed abelian group G. We generalize this to asking for the expected number of unramified G-extensions Galois over $mathbbQ$ for a fixed finite group G, with no restrictions placed on G. We review cases where the answer is known or conjectured by Boston-Wood, Boston-Bush-Hajir, and Bhargava, then answer this question in several new cases. In particular, we show when the expected number is zero and give a nontrivial family of groups realizing this. Additionally, we prove the expected number for the quaternion group $Q_8$ and dihedral group $D_4$ of order 8 is infinite. Lastly, we discuss the special case of groups generated by elements of order 2 and give an argument for an infinite expected number based on Malle's conjecture.

Review text

For \(\varepsilon\in\{+,-\}\) let \(D^{\varepsilon}(x)\) be the set of quadratic fields with discriminants \(0<d\le x\) if \(\varepsilon=+\), resp. \(0< -d \le x\) if \(\varepsilon=-\), and let \(G\) be a finite group. The author considers the Cohen-Lenstra moments \(E^{\varepsilon}(G)\) defined by \[ E^{\varepsilon}(G) = \lim_{x\to\infty}\frac{A^{\epsilon}_G(x)}{N^{\varepsilon}(x)}, \] where \(N^{\varepsilon}(x)\) is the number of fields in \(D^{\varepsilon}(x)\) and \(A^{\varepsilon}_G(x)\) is the number of unramified extensions \(K/k\) of fields \(k\in D^{\varepsilon}(x)\) with Galois group \(G(K/k)=G\) and Galois \(K/Q\). If \(E^{\varepsilon}(G)\) is non-zero, then there is a \(GI\)-extension of \(G\), which is an extension \(G\vartriangleleft G'\) of index \(2\) such that \(G'\) is generated by elements of order two not contained in \(G\) (see [\textit{N. Boston}, J. Algebra 300, No. 1, 73--76 (2006; Zbl 1102.12002)]). It has been conjectured that if \(G\) is an abelian group of odd order, then \[ E^{+}(G)=\frac1{\#G\cdot\#\mathrm{Aut}(G)},\quad E^{-}(G)=\frac1{\#\mathrm{Aut}(G)}, \] and it is known that this conjecture would imply the truth of the Cohen-Lenstra heuristics (see [\textit{H. Cohen} and \textit{H. W. Lenstra jun.}, Lect. Notes Math. 1068, 33--62 (1984; Zbl 0558.12002)]) for quadratic fields. Recently \textit{M. M. Wood} [Duke Math. J. 168, No. 3, 377--427 (2019; Zbl 1429.11204)] formulated an extension of this conjecture to the case of finite nonabelian groups \(G\). The author confirms this conjecture in certain particular cases. He shows that \(E^{\varepsilon}(G)=0\) holds for almost all finite \(p\)-groups with odd \(p\) (Corollary 2.6) and for infinitely many affine linear transformation groups \(\{x\mapsto ax+b:\ a,b\in F_q, a^d=1\}\) for any \(d\) (Theorem 3.6). In section \(4\) the results of \textit{F. Lemmermeyer} [J. Théor. Nombres Bordx. 9, No. 1, 51--68 (1997; Zbl 0890.11031)] on classification of unramified quaterionic and dihedral extensions of quadratic fields are used to show \(E^{\varepsilon}(G)=\infty\) for \(G=H_8\) and \(D_4\). In the last section a sufficient condition for \(E^{\varepsilon}(G)=\infty\) is given in the case \(G'=G\times C_2\).

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Cited in

(6)

• Nonabelian Cohen-Lenstra moments
• Heuristics for \(p\)-class towers of imaginary quadratic fields
• Non-abelian Cohen-Lenstra heuristics over function fields
• The distribution of \(H_8\)-extensions of quadratic fields
• A predicted distribution for Galois groups of maximal unramified extensions
• Publisher correction to: ``A predicted distribution for Galois groups of maximal unramified extensions

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