Module invariants and root numbers for quaternion fields of degree 41r

Abstract

1. The results. Let l be an odd prime, r ≥ 1, and letbe the quaternion group of order 4lr, as given by generators and relations. Throughout N is a tamely ramified normal number field with Galois group Gal (N/Q) = H (a ‘quaternion field’), and its ring of integers. We are interested in the structure of as a module over the integral group ring ZH. Deriving, first, certain classgroup invariants for locally free ZH-modules, we shall then determine those for the module in terms of the arithmetic invariants of N/Q. When 1 ≡ – 1 (mod 4), this yields again a Galois module interpretation of Artin root numbers quite analogous to that in (2). On the other hand for l ≡ 1 (mode 4), we shall get a weak ‘normal integral basis theorem’. The original impetus for this work came from computations of J. Queyrut, who – in different language – obtained these results in the case l = 3, r = 1 (cf. (7)). The tools, we are using, come from the general theory developed in recent years with such concrete applications in mind, and it is perhaps of interest to see how the various ‘strands’, on root numbers (cf. (3), (4)), on locally free modules (cf. (5)), and on Galois module structure (cf. (6)) are here pulled together. For technical reasons, we shall impose on N the slight further restriction, that l be non-ramified, although our results would remain true without this. Both the statements and the proofs of the theorem depend on ideas contained in (5) and (6). The reader who is prepared to take them for granted should, however, be able to read the present paper independently of those papers.