Places of algebraic function fields in arbitrary characteristic

We consider the Zariski space of all places of an algebraic function field F|K of arbitrary characteristic and investigate its structure by means of its patch topology. We show that certain sets of places with nice properties (e.g., prime divisors, places of maximal rank, zero-dimensional discrete places) lie dense in this topology. Further, we give several equivalent characterizations of fields that are large, in the sense of F. Pop's Annals paper Embedding problems over large fields. We also study the question whether a field K is existentially closed in an extension field L if L admits a K-rational place. In the appendix, we prove the fact that the Zariski space with the Zariski topology is quasi-compact and that it is a spectral space.     

On a characterization of path connected topological fields

The aim of this paper is to give a characterization of path connected topological fields, inspired by the classical Gelfand correspondence between a compact Hausdorff topological space X and the space of maximal ideals of the ring of real valued continuous functions $C(X,\mathbb{R})$. More explicitly, our motivation is the following question: What is the essential property of the topological field $F=\mathbb{R}$ that makes such a correspondence valid for all compact Hausdorff spaces? It turns out that such a perfect correspondence exists if and only if F is a path connected topological field.     

Local Galois theory in dimension two

This paper proves a generalization of Shafarevich's Conjecture, for fields of Laurent series in two variables over an arbitrary field. This result says that the absolute Galois group G_K of such a field K is quasi-free of rank equal to the cardinality of K, i.e. every non-trivial finite split embedding problem for G_K has exactly proper solutions. We also strengthen a result of Pop and Haran-Jarden on the existence of proper regular solutions to split embedding problems for curves over large fields; our strengthening concerns integral models of curves, which are two-dimensional.     

On Brown’s constant associated with irreducible polynomials over henselian valued fields

Let v be a henselian valuation of arbitrary rank of a field K and be the prolongation of v to the algebraic closure of K with value group . In 2008, Ron Brown gave a class P of monic irreducible polynomials over K such that to each g(x) belonging to P, there corresponds a smallest constant λ_g belonging to (referred to as Brown’s constant) with the property that whenever is more than λ_g with K(β) a tamely ramified extension of (K,v), then K(β) contains a root of g(x). In this paper, we determine explicitly this constant besides giving an important property of λ_g without assuming that K(β)/K is tamely ramified.     

Projective Schur groups of Henselian fields

One of the open questions that has emerged in the study of the projective Schur group of a field F is whether or not is an algebraic relative Brauer group over F, i.e. does there exist an algebraic extension L/F such that ? We show that the same question for the Schur group of a number field has a negative answer. For the projective Schur group, no counterexample is known. In this paper we prove that is an algebraic relative Brauer group for all Henselian valued fields F of equal characteristic whose residue field is a local or global field. For this, we first show how is determined by for an equicharacteristic Henselian field with arbitrary residue field k.     

Rational functions over finite fields having continued fraction expansions with linear partial quotients

Let F be a finite field with q elements and let g be a polynomial in F[X] with positive degree less than or equal to q/2. We prove that there exists a polynomial f∈F[X], coprime to g and of degree less than g, such that all of the partial quotients in the continued fraction of g/f have degree 1. This result, bounding the size of the partial quotients, is related to a function field equivalent of Zaremba's conjecture and improves on a result of Blackburn [S.R. Blackburn, Orthogonal sequences of polynomials over arbitrary fields, J. Number Theory 6 (1998) 99-111]. If we further require g to be irreducible then we can loosen the degree restriction on g to deg(g)?q.     

Demuškin fields with valuations

We study the arithmetic structure of fields F of characteristic containing a primitive pth root of unity for which the maximal pro-p Galois group of F is a (finitely generated) Demuškin group. Received: 3 July 2001 / Published online: 2 December 2002 The research has been supported by the Israel Science Foundation grant 8007/99     

Lattice-ordered fields

Mainly archimedean lattice-ordered fields (l-fields) are investigated in this paper. An archimedean l-field has a largest subfield (its o-subfield) which can be totally ordered in such a way that the l-field is a partially ordered vector space over this subfield. For archimedean l-fields which are algebraic over their o-subfields the following questions are investigated: What is the structure of the additive l-group of an l-field? Can the lattice order of an l-field be extended to a total order? Are the intermediate fields of an l-field and its o-subfield also l-fields with the induced partial order?     

Jacobi forms over totally real number fields

We define Jacobi forms over a totally real algebraic number field K and construct examples by first embedding the group and the space into the symplectic group and the symplectic upper half space respectively. Then symplectic modular forms are created and Jacobi forms arise by taking the appropriate Fourier coefficients. Also some known relations of Jacobi forms to vector valued modular forms over rational numbers are extended to totally real fields.     

Topological differential fields

We consider first-order theories of topological fields admitting a model-completion and their expansion to differential fields (requiring no interaction between the derivation and the other primitives of the language). We give a criterion under which the expansion still admits a model-completion which we axiomatize. It generalizes previous results due to M. Singer for ordered differential fields and of C. Michaux for valued differential fields. As a corollary, we show a transfer result for the NIP property. We also give a geometrical axiomatization of that model-completion. Then, for certain differential valued fields, we extend the positive answer of Hilbert’s seventeenth problem and we prove an Ax-Kochen-Ershov theorem. Similarly, we consider first-order theories of topological fields admitting a model-companion and their expansion to differential fields, and under a similar criterion as before, we show that the expansion still admits a model-companion. This last result can be compared with those of M. Tressl: on one hand we are only dealing with a single derivation whereas he is dealing with several, on the other hand we are not restricting ourselves to definable expansions of the ring language, taking advantage of our topological context. We apply our results to fields endowed with several valuations (respectively several orders).     

Near-fields and linear transformations of finite fields

A question about near-fields suggests the following problem: If F is a finite field, K is a finite extension of F, and H is a multiplicative subgroup of K¹, describe the F-linear maps φ: K → K which fix F and leave each coset of H invariant. A plausible conjecture would seem to be that φ must be a field automorphism. This is confirmed here in the case that |H| and |F| satisfy a certain numerical relation (and, in particular, when K/F is quadratic). The bulk of the argument consists of showing that an F-linear transformation of K which preserves F-conjugacy is almost always an automorphism.     

Maximal class numbers of CM number fields

Fix a totally real number field F of degree at least 2. Under the assumptions of the generalized Riemann hypothesis and Artin's conjecture on the entirety of Artin L-functions, we derive an upper bound (in terms of the discriminant) on the class number of any CM number field with maximal real subfield F. This bound is a refinement of a bound established by Duke in 2001. Under the same hypotheses, we go on to prove that there exist infinitely many CM-extensions of F whose class numbers essentially meet this improved bound and whose Galois groups are as large as possible.     

Period-index and u-invariant questions for function fields over complete discretely valued fields

Let K be a complete discretely valued field with residue field κ and F the function field of a curve over K. Let p be the characteristic of κ and ? a prime not equal to p. If the Brauer ?-dimensions of all finite extensions of κ are bounded by d and the Brauer ?-dimensions of all extensions of κ of transcendence degree at most 1 are bounded by d+1, then it is known that the Brauer ?-dimension of F is at most d+2 (Lieblich in J. Reine Angew. Math. 659:1–41, 2011; Saltman in J. Ramanujan Math. Soc. 12:25–47, 1997; Harbater et al. in Invent. Math. 178:231–263, 2009). In this paper we give a bound for the Brauer p-dimension of F in terms of the p-rank of κ. As an application, we show that if κ is a perfect field of characteristic 2, then any quadratic form over F in at least 9 variables is isotropic. This leads to the fact that every element in \(H^{3}(F,\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})\) is a symbol. If κ is a finite field of characteristic 2, u(F)=8 is a result of Heath-Brown/Leep (Heath-Brown in Compos. Math. 146:271–287, 2010; Leep in J. Reine Angew. Math., 2013, to appear).     

Pro-p galois groups of rank ≤4

Letp be a prime >2, letF be a field of characteristic ≠p containing a primitivep-th root of unity and letG _F (p) be the Galois group of the maximal Galois-p-extension ofF. Ifrk G _F (p)≤4 thenG _F (p) is a free pro-p product of metabelian groups orG _F (p) is a Demuškin group of rank 4.     

Embeddings of function fields into ample fields

Let E be an ample field and ${K\subseteq E}$ a subfield. We determine when a function field F/K can be embedded into E and compute the number of such embeddings. We give some applications and exhibit new examples of non-ample fields.     

Positive elimination in valued fields

Let K be an algebraically closed field with a valuation ring or a real closed field with a convex valuation ring . We show that the projection of a basic (see “Introduction”) subset of to K ⁿ is again basic.     

On integrally closed simple extensions of valuation rings

Let v be a Krull valuation of a field with valuation ring $R_v$. Let θ be a root of an irreducible trinomial $F(x)=x^n+a{x}^m+b$ belonging to $R_v[x]$. In this paper, we give necessary and sufficient conditions involving only $a,b,m,n$ for $R_v[\theta ]$ to be integrally closed. In the particular case when v is the p-adic valuation of the field $\mathbb{Q}$ of rational numbers, $F(x)\in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ and $K=\mathbb{Q}(\theta )$, then it is shown that these conditions lead to the characterization of primes which divide the index of the subgroup $\mathbb{Z}[\theta ]$ in $A_K$, where $A_K$ is the ring of algebraic integers of K. As an application, it is deduced that for any algebraic number field K and any quadratic field L not contained in K, we have $A_{KL}=A_K{A}_L$ if and only if the discriminants of K and L are coprime.     

Central values of L-functions over CM fields

We prove an explicit formula for the central values of certain Rankin L-functions. These L-functions are the L-functions attached to Hilbert newforms over a totally real field F, twisted by unitary Hecke characters of a totally imaginary quadratic extension of F. This formula generalizes our former result on L-functions twisted by finite CM characters.     

On some questions related to the Gauss conjecture for function fields

We show that, for any finite field Fq, there exist infinitely many real quadratic function fields over Fq such that the numerator of their zeta function is a separable polynomial. As pointed out by Anglès, this is a necessary condition for the existence, for any finite field Fq, of infinitely many real function fields over Fq with ideal class number one (the so-called Gauss conjecture for function fields). We also show conditionally the existence of infinitely many real quadratic function fields over Fq such that the numerator of their zeta function is an irreducible polynomial.     

Elementary Abelianp-extensions of algebraic function fields

LetK be a field of characteristicp>0 andF/K be an algebraic function field. We obtain several results on Galois extensionsE/F with an elementary Abelian Galois group of orderp ⁿ.

1. E can be generated overF by some elementy whose minimal polynomial has the specific formT ^pn?T?z.
2. A formula for the genus ofE is given.
3. IfK is finite, then the genus ofE grows much faster than the number of rational points (as [E∶F] → ∞).
4. We present a new example of a function fieldE/K whose gap numbers are nonclassical.