C OMPOSITIO M ATHEMATICA
R ODNEY I. Y AGER
A Kummer criterion for imaginary quadratic fields
Compositio Mathematica, tome 47, n
o1 (1982), p. 31-42
<http://www.numdam.org/item?id=CM_1982__47_1_31_0>
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31
A KUMMER CRITERION FOR IMAGINARY
QUADRATIC
FIELDSRodney
I.Yager
@ 1982 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers - The Hague Printed in the Netherlands
Let
C(s)
denote the Riemann zetafunction,
and for each evenpositive integer k,
defineThen
’oc(k) = -BJ2k,
whereBk
denotes the k-th Bernoullinumber,
and so’oc(k)
is rational. Let p be an oddprime.
Then it is known that the numbers’oc(k) (1
kp - 1)
arep-integral,
and so may beregarded
as
lying
inZp.
Kummer studied therelationship
between these num-bers and the arithmetic of
Q(lLp),
and thefollowing
theorem isgenerally
known as Kummer’s criterion.THEOREM 1: Let p be an odd
prime.
Then thefollowing
areequivalent.
(i) p is regular (i.e.,
the class numberof 0(g,)
isprime
top).
(ii)
there is nounramified cyclic
extensionof 0(g,) of degree
p.(iii)
there is aunique cyclic
extensionof 0(g,)’ of degree
p which isunramified
outside theprime dividing
p.(iv)
the numbers’oc(k) (k
even, 1 kp - 1)
are units inZp.
The aim of this paper is to prove an
analagous
result in theelliptic
case, but before
explaining this,
we mention thef ollowing
refinementof Kummer’s criterion which is due to Ribet
[6].
THEOREM 2:
Let X
denote the canonical characterof
Gal(Ô/O)
withvalues in
Z P giving
the actionof
Gal(Ô/O)
on li,, and let k be an eveninteger
with 1 kp - 1.
Then p divides’oc(k) if
andonly if
there is an0010-437X/82070031-12$00.2010
unramified cyclic
extension Eof 0(g,) of degree
p such thatfor
allcl E
Gal(E/Q)
and T EGal (EJO(lip»,
We now turn to the
elliptic
case. Let K be animaginary quadratic
field with class number
1,
and let (J denote thering
ofintegers
of K.Let
K
be analgebraic
closure ofK,
and let E be anelliptic
curvedefined over K whose
ring
ofendomorphisms
isisomorphic
to C. Letp be a rational
prime,
not 2 or3,
whichsplits
inK,
and for which E hasgood
réduction atboth primes of K dividing p. We fix,
for the restof this paper, one of the
primes
pdividing
p, and we write * for the fieldK(Ep),
whereEp
denotes the kernel of theendomorphism
p onE(K).
Let F be any Galois extension of K contained in f. We say p isirregular
for F if there is acyclic
extension of F ofdegree
p which is unramified outside theprimes
of Fdividing
p and which is distinct from thecomposition
of F and the firstlayer
of theunique Zp-
extension Koo of K unramified outside p.
Coates and Wiles
[1]
havegiven
a criterion fordetermining
whetherp is
irregular
for the ray class field of K modulo p in terms of thep-adic properties
of Hurwitz numbers. We shall extend theirresult,
andprovide
criteria fordetermining whether p
isirregular
for any Galois extension of K contained in F.To state our result
precisely,
we shall need to introduce a littlemore notation. Choose a Weierstrass model for E
such that g2 and g3
belong
to (j and the discriminant isprime
to p and itsconjugate p*.
Asusual,
we shall suppose thatK
is embedded thecomplex
field C, and we shall denoteby P(z)
the Weierstrass P- function associated to our model. Weidentify
B with the endomor-phism ring
of E so that a E (jcorresponds
to theendomorphism e(z)
-e(az),
wheree(z) = (e (z), e(z».
Let L be theperiod
lattice of91(z),
and choose an element 000 E L such that L = HocC.Let tp
be the Grossencharacter attached to the curve E over Kby
thetheory
ofcomplex multiplication,
and writeL(tfrk, s)
for theprimitive complex
Hecke L-function attached to
k
for eachinteger k >
1.Then, if -dK
denotes the discriminant of
K,
Damerell’s Theorem states that the numbersbelong
toK, and,
moreover, if0 j k, they belong
to K.We shall be interested in the
p-adic properties
of thesenumbers,
and so, for
simplicity,
we shall fix anembedding
ofK
inCp,
analgebraic
closure of thecompletion Kn
of K at p. Infact,
it has been shown(see [9])
that the numbersL.o(, k)
allbelong
toK,,
and arep-integral if 0:5 i «r- p - 1
and 1 k s p.Finally,
we write XI and X2 for the canonical characters with values inZ p giving
the action ofGal(K/K)
onthe p
andp*-division points
ofE
respectively. Clearly,
XI and X2together
generateHom(Gal(e/K), Z’).
If F is a subfield ofF,
we shall say a character x ofGal(,f/K) belongs
to F if the kernelof X
containsGal(/F).
Our main result is as follows.
THEOREM 3: Let F be any Galois extension
of
K contained in ° Then theprime
p isirregular for
Fif
andonly if
there existintegers
kand j
with0jp-l, 1 k s p
such thatXk ix2 is a
non-trivial characterbelonging
to F andLtX)(k+j, k)
is not a unit inK,.
As
a numericalexample,
consider the field K =Q(i)
and theelliptic
curve E:
y2
=4x3 -
4x. If p is aprime
congruent to 1 modulo4,
and p is aprime lying
above p, then the charactersbelonging
to9t,,
the ray classfield of K modulo p, are the characters
Xk IX2’
forwhich j
= 0mod(p - 1)
and k = 0 mod
4,
while the charactersbelonging
toep,
the ray class fieldof K modulo p, are the characters
XkX2j
for which k+ j
= 0 mod 4.Using
the table in Hurwitz
[3] together
with the f ormulae in Weil[8]
p.45,
it iseasy to calculate the
following
table of values for(te - l)!Lao(B k).
Values of
iri(k -
k) for the curveY2
= 4x3 - 4x.It follows from Theorem 3 that p is
regular
forboth Rq,
andR,
whenp =
5,
but thatwhile p
isregular
for9é, ,
it isirregular
forRp
when p =29,
since 29 dividesL(X)(20, 19).
Similarly,
p isirregular
forAp
when p =37,
389 or15629,
sincethese
primes
divideLoo( t/J 17), Loo( t/J 23)
andLoo( t/J , 22)
respec-tively.
Before
giving
theproof
of Theorem3,
we remark that Hida[2]
hasgone part way towards
proving
theanalogue
of Theorem 2. His result is summarized in thefollowing
theorem.THEOREM 4:
Suppose
the curve E isdefined
over 0 and let k be aninteger
such that 1 k s p, k:¡J6p -1. Then, if
F is any Galois extensionof
K such thatXk IX2 -k belongs
to F and p dividesLoo(2k, k),
there is acyclic
extensionof Fof degree p unramified
outside p on whichGal(F/K)
acts via
XIX 2
PROOF OF THEOREM 3: Let M denote the maximal abelian p- extension of F unramified outside the
primes
of Fdividing
p, and let Fco denote thecomposition
of F and Koo. It can be shown that for F asin our
theorem, Gal(M/F.)
isfinite,
and it is easy to deduce from this that p isirregular
for F if andonly
ifGat(M/Foo)
is non-trivial. The idea of ourproof
is to relate the formulagiven
in Theorem 11 of Coates and Wiles[1]
for the order ofGal(MIF.)
to the numbersLoo(k+j, k).
It will be convenient to do this in two
parts.
The first is to prove thep-adic analogue
of the well known formula whichgives
theproduct
of the class number and the
regulator
of an abelian extension of K in terms of thelogarithms
of Robert’selliptic
units. Thep-adic logarithms
of these
elliptic
units arise in the work of Lichtenbaum[5]
asspecial
values of certain Iwasawa functions which he constructs
which,
as we shallshow,
areprecisely
the functions which Katzproduced
inter-polating
the numbersLoo(k+j, k).
The congruences which arise from this observation willyield
Theorem 3.For the moment, let us suppose
only
that F is a finite abelian extension of K ofdegree
d and conductor g. For eachcharacter X
ofGal(F/K),
we letFx
denote the fixed field of the kernelof x
and wewrite gx
for the conductor ofF,.
If we denoteby 9tq
the ray class field ofK modulo gx, it is clear that we may
regard X
as a character ofGal(&,,,/K),
andhence,
via thereciprocity
map, as aprimitive
characterof the ray class
modulo gX
which we shall denoteby Cl (gx).
Let nx be the smallestpositive
rationalinteger in gx
and letW9x
be the number of roots ofunity
in K which are congruent to 1 modulo gx. Let w and wF be the number of roots ofunity
in K and Frespectively,
and let h denote the class number of F.Then,
ifOgx(C),
C ECI(g,)
is the invariant definedby
Robert
[7]
p.14,
we have thefollowing
lemma.LEMMA 5: With a suitable choice
of
thesign of
theregulator
Rof F,
where the
product
on theleft
is taken over all non-trivial charactersof Gal (FI K).
PROOF: This is Theorem
3(ii)
of Robert[7],
if we note that the numbers Robert denotesby p(x’) satisfy (fl,oi p(X’))2
= 1.From now on, we fix our choice of the
regulator
R of F so thatequation (1) holds,
and we shall now prove ap-adic analogue
of thisformula. Let
logp
be an extension of thep-adic logarithm
to the whole ofCp,
and let à be the group of values takenby
the characters of Gal(FI K).
Recall that
Rg
is the ray class field of Kmodulo g,
and we extendlog 1
and
logp to &ô (& Z [à] by defining
and
Let 0,
dénote theexpression IIcEcl(g)( pg (C) X -l( C»,
andobserve that if u E
Gal(F/K),
thenIt follows that
and that
Choose units el,..., ed-l in F which generate a
subgroup
of indexWp in the group of units of F so that
We define
p-adic regulator
ofF, Rp by
(This
definition fixes thesign
ofRp,
but otherwise agrees with that usedby
Coates and Wiles[1].)
Nowyif Co
is-a fixed-elementof-CI(8x)’ q,9x{C)/-q,9x-( Cu)
isa unit inRa
forall C E
Cl (gx),
and it is clear thatMoreover,
sincecf>x
is fixedby Gal(R,/F),
it follows that if W dénotes the group of roots ofunity
inF,
there are elements ax,j EZ[â]
andllx E
W(& Z[â]
such thatThus,
if 0’ EGal(F/K)
and so we conclude that
and
But,
it is easy to see thatdet(X(o,»,*,,.,él
is non-zero(see,
forinstance,
Lemma 10.9 of Lichtenbaum[5]),
and so, sinceR#- 0,
we conclude from Lemma 5 andequations (4)-(7)
that we have thefollowing p-adic analogue
of Lemma 5.THEOREM 6: With our
given
choiceof
thesign of Rp
where the
product
on theleft
is taken over all non-trivial charactersof Gal(FIK).
Let
Ê
be the f ormal groupgiving
the kernel of reductionmodulo p
on
E,
and we choose-2x/y
as theparameter
forÊ. Let q : Ê ZGm
be theisomorphism
of formal groups defined overC,
betweenÊ
and the formalmultiplicative
groupGm
chosen in[9].
The coefficient of T in the power seriesexpansion
ofq (T)
=0" T
+ ...,is,
of course, a unitin
Cp.
Infact, flp belongs
to the maximal unramified extension ofKp and,
as is shown in[9],
the action of Frobenius onflip
isgiven by multiplication by tk(p).
Recall that
if X
is a character ofGal(F/K),
we mayregard X
as acharacter of the ray class modulo gx, and hence as a
primitive
Dirichlet character of conductor gx.
Suppose
gx ="mxcx’
where ex isprime
to p. Then we may express Xuniquely
as theproduct
of twoprimitive
Dirichlet characters Xo and Xp of conductor ex and"mx respectively.
Choose generators 11’ of p, and yx of ex, and letPx
be thepoint
of exactorder gX
on the curvegiven by Px
=Pxo
+Pxn
wherePxo
=E(Ooo/yx)
andPXn
=E(Ooo/1I’mx).
Thepoint Pxn
may beregarded
as apoint
of orderpmx
on the f ormal groupÊ,
andso C, = n (P,,) +
1 is ap’"x-th
root ofunity.
We writeCx
for the Gauss sumLet 6 denote the
triple (E, 2dxly, Tl -1)
as in §6 of Lichtenbaum[5]
and let
L(6,
X,Px)
be the function he defines in §8.1. Then we have thefollowing
theorem.THEOREM 7: Let
DFIK
be the relative discriminantof
F over K. Theni-i,oi I-(W, x, P,)(1),
with theproduct
taken over all non-trivialcharacters
of Gal(FIK),
has the samep-adic
valuation aswhere the
product
is taken over theprime
idealsof
Fdividing
p, andNq
denotes the nonn to K
of
q.PROOF: It is easy to see from
Corollary
9.4 of Lichtenbaumthat,
ifx is non-trivial
Since p is
prime
to 2 and3,
and yx + 7T mx isprime
to gx, it is clear fromequations (8)
and(9)
that it will suffice to prove thatIIx#1 Cx(l- X(ir)lp)
has the same
,,-asdic
valuation aspd"Flil. IIq q ( 1- (N q)-’).
Now it is
wellknown that irxC,,C,71
is aunit
inCp, and
so theconductor-discriminant theorem shows that
IIx#, Cx
has the same,,-asdic
valuation asDFIK . Moreover,
if H dénotes the maximal abelian extension of K contained in F in which p isunramified,
it is easy tosee that
only
thosecharacters X
whichbelong
to H contribute torix,él (1- X(w)lp).
We conclude thatIIx#1 (1- X(7T)/p)
has the samep-adic
valuation aspl-£H:K],
which is also the same as thep-adic
valuation of p.
IIqp (1- (Nq)-’).
From now on, we suppose, as in Theorem
3,
that F is a Galois extension of K contained in F. Theimportance
of theprevious
theorem can be seen from the
following corollary.
COROLLARY 8: Let F be a Galois extension
of
K contained in f.Then
p is regular for
Fif
andonly if
the numberIIx#1 L(E,
X,P,)(1),
where the
product
is taken over all non-trivial charactersof Gal(FIK),
is a unit in
C,.
PROOF: Recall that M denotes the maximal abelian
p-extension
ofF unramified outside the
primes
of Flying
above p, and that Foc denotes thecomposition
of F and Koo. Since thep-adic regulator R,
isnon-zero, it follows from Theorem 11 of Coates and Wiles
[1]
thatGal(M/Foo)
isfinite,
and that it is trivial if andonly
ifIIX#1 L(6,
X,Px)(1)
is a unit inC,.
But sinceGal(F./F)
has notorsion,
we conclude that p is
regular
for F if andonly
ifGal(M/F.)
istrivial,
and the assertion of the
corollary
is nowplain.
To conclude the
proof
of Theorem3,
we need to relate the numbersL(rk+i, k)
to the values ofL(Z,
X,Px).
Letf
be the conductor ofJi
and let p be the Dirichlet character of conductorf given by
and observe that the character
X ix2’,
when viewed as aprimitive
Dirichlet
character,
isgiven by
where W is the usual Teich-Muller character
on Z; (and
hence aDirichlet character of conductor p under the obvious identification of
Ù,
withZp). By
the characters on theright
hand side ofequation (11)
we mean, of course, the associated
primitive
characters. The follow-ing
theorem is due to Katz.THEOREM 9: For each
integer
i mod w, there is anintegral
valuedmeasure >;
supported on Z;2
such thatfor
all k >1, j ?
0satisfying
k+ j
= i mod wand
for
all k - 3and j
0 modp -1.
Furthermore, if
aE Z;
there is anotherintegral
valued measure1£9 a) on Z;
such thatfor
all k e 1 such that k --- i mod w.PROOF: We shall
only
indicatebriefly
here how the existence of these measures can be deduced from the results in Katz[4].
For a fullerexplanation
of how this type of result can beobtained,
we referthe reader to our earlier paper
[9].
LetNo
be the smallestpositive
rational
integer belonging
to the conductor of theprimitive
Dirichletcharacter
p -i,
and let a be any levelNo-structure
on E. The isomor-phism 4
fixedby
Katz[4]
in 8.7.2 is the onecorresponding
under8.3.17 to our chosen
isomorphism
of formal groups q.Thus,
the unit defined in 8.3.16 isjust 0;1,
andsince,
as we remarkedearlier,
Frobenius acts on
il, by multiplication by qi(p),
it follows that the generator of p fixedby
Katz in 8.7.3is,
infact, l/1(p).
Letfi
be thefunction on
(ZINOZ)2 given by
Then,
the function g onCINOC corresponding
tofi
is theprimitive
Dirichlet character
p -¡,
and so the formulae 8.7.5 show that themeasure gi defined
by
satisfies
equations (12)
and(13).
If b is any
integer
congruent to 1 moduloNo,
it is astraightforward
exercise
using
the formulae in Katz to show that the measureli,a)
defined
by
has the desired
properties.
Before
proceeding,
we observe that it is a consequence ofequation (12)
and the fact that the numbersLoo(, k) belong
to Kprovided 0 j k,
thatLCX)(k+i, k) belongs
toK,
for all k ? 1and j e
0.Theorem 9 enables us to prove the
following
theorem.THEOREM 10:
Let X
be a non-trivial characterof Gal(FIK),
and letil
andi2
beintegers
modulo(p - 1)
such that X =xb’x#.
Then Xo =Xw-‘1
and X, =CI) il.
Choose generators 7T and yxof
p and the conductor C,of
Xo asbefore,
and letPx
be thecorresponding gx-division point of
E. Then
L(Z,
X,Px)
is an Iwasawafunction,
andif
a isprimitive
(p - 1)-th
rootof unity
and u - 1 -il
mod(p - 1)
PROOF: Since
L(Z, X, Px)
is a continuousfunction,
it will suffice to prove that if k > 3 and k =il
mod(p - 1), L(6,
X,Px) (1- k)
isgiven by
the formula in thetheorem,
since this a dense subset ofZ p. But,
for suchk,
Theorem 8.2 of Lichtenbaum[5]
shows thatwhere
Ek,xo
isgiven by
Theorem 7.1 andSince
Xo( 1T)1Tk
=(1)ijj(,,»t/1k(,,),
the theorem followsimmediately
from
equations (13)
and(14).
Let X
be a non-trivial character ofGal(F/K)
and chooseintegers
kand j
withOsjp-l
andlksp
suchthat X=Xk IX21.
SinceL(6,
X,Px)
is an Iwasawafunction, L(6, x, P,)(1)
is aninteger
inC,,
and it is a unit if and
only
ifL(Z,
X,Px)(1- k)
is a unit.Now, if j
=0, L(Z, X, P,)(1 - k) I)k-1 w(k - 1)!ill-kyk(l _ jk(p)ip )L.( k , k)
and so we conclude that
L(E,
X,P,)(1)
is a unit if andonly
ifLCXJ(k, k)
is a unit in
C,.
On the other
hand, if j d 0,
it follows from the fact thatyi = (1)j(y)
mod p for all y E
Z Q
and Theorem10,
thatL(E,
X,Px)(1 - k)
is a unit ifand
only if j xk-lyjdlLk+j
is a unit.Again,
we deduce f romequation (12)
that this is the case if andonly
ifLoo( k)
is a unit inC,.
These
facts, together
withCorollary 8, yield
Theorem 3.REFERENCES
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[3] A. HURWITZ: Über die Entwicklungskoeffizienten der lemniskatischen Funk- tionen. Math. Ann. 51 (1899) 196-226 (=Werke II, 342-373).
[4] N. KATZ: p-adic interpolation of real analytic Eisenstein series. Ann. Math. 104 (1976) 459-571.
[5] S. LICHTENBAUM: On p-adic L-functions associated to elliptic curves. Invent.
Math. 56 (1980) 19-55.
[6] K. RIBET: A modular construction of unramified p-extensions of Q(03BCp). Invent.
Math. 34 (1976) 151-162.
[7] G. ROBERT: Unités elliptiques, Bull. Soc. Math. France Memoire 36 (1973).
[8] A. WEIL: Elliptic functions according to Eisenstein and Kronecker. Springer- Verlag, 1976.
[9] R. YAGER: On two variable p-adic L-functions. Ann. Math. 115 (1982) 411-449.
(Oblatum 26-1-1982) Department of Mathematics Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Cambridge, MA 02139
U.S.A.