Toward equivariant Iwasawa theory

 Let l be an odd prime number, K/k a finite Galois extension of totally real number fields, and G _∞ , X _∞ the Galois groups of K _∞ /k and M _∞ /K _∞ , respectively, where K _∞ is the cyclotomic l-extension of K and M _∞ the maximal abelian S-ramified l-extension of K _∞ with S a sufficiently large finite set of primes of k. We introduce a new K-theoretic variant of the Iwasawa ℤG _∞ ]]-module X _∞ and, for K/k abelian, formulate a conjecture, which is the main conjecture of classical Iwasawa theory when lłK : k]. We prove this new conjecture when Iwasawa's μ-invariant vanishes and discuss consequences for the Lifted Root Number Conjecture at l. Received: 7 August 2001 / Revised version: 6 May 2002 We acknowledge financial support provided by NSERC. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 11R23, 11R27, 11R32, 11R33, 11R37, 11R42, 11S20, 11S23, 11S31, 11S40