Using the action of the Galois group of a normal extension of number fields, we generalize and symmetrize various fundamental statements in algebra and algebraic number theory concerning splitting types of prime ideals, factorization types of polynomials modulo primes, and cycle types of the Galois groups of polynomials. One remarkable example is the removal of all artificial constraints from the Kummer-Dedekind Theorem that relates splitting and factorization patterns. Finally, we present an elementary proof that the discriminant of the splitting field of a monic irreducible polynomial with integer coefficients has a computable upper bound in terms of the coefficients. This result, combined with one of Lagarias et al., shows that tests of polynomials for the cycle types of the Galois group are conclusive. In particular, the Galois groups of monic irreducible cubics, quartics, and quintics with integer coefficients can be completely determined in finitely many steps (though not necessarily in one's lifetime).
We find a tight relationship between the torsion subgroup and the image of the mod 2 Galois representation associated to an elliptic curve defined over the rationals. This is shown using some characterizations for the squareness of the discriminant of the elliptic curve.
Let $L/K$ be a Galois extension of number fields. We prove two lower bounds on the maximum of the degrees of the irreducible complex representations of ${\rm Gal}(L/K)$, the sharper of which is conditional on the Artin Conjecture and the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis. Our bound is nontrivial when $[K : \mathbb{Q}]$ is small and $L$ has small root discriminant, and might be summarized as saying that such fields can't be "too abelian."
This paper was motivated by a recent paper by Krumm and Pollack investigating modulo-$p$ behaviour of quadratic twists with rational points of a given hyperelliptic curve, conditional on the abc-conjecture. We extend those results to twisted Galois covers with arbitrary Galois groups. The main point of this generalization is to interpret those results as statements about the sets of specializations of a given Galois cover under restrictions on the discriminant. In particular, we make a connection with existing heuristics about the distribution of discriminants of Galois extensions such as the …
Given a finite transitive permutation group $G$, we investigate number fields $F/\mathbb{Q}$ of Galois group $G$ whose discriminant is only divisible by small prime powers. This generalizes previous investigations of number fields with squarefree discriminant. In particular, we obtain a comprehensive result on number fields with cubefree discriminant. Our main tools are arithmetic-geometric, involving in particular an effective criterion on ramification in specializations of Galois covers.
We determine, asymptotically, the number of quintic fields having bounded discriminant. Specifically, we prove that the asymptotic number of quintic fields having absolute discriminant at most X is a constant times X. In contrast with the quartic case, we also show that a density of 100% of quintic fields, when ordered by absolute discriminant, have Galois closure with full Galois group $S_5$. The analogues of these results are also proven for orders in quintic fields. Finally, we give an interpretation of the various constants appearing in these theorems in terms of local masses of quintic ri…
We study equivariant de Rham discriminants associated to arithmetic varieties which support a tame action by a finite group; we form these discriminants by endowing the de Rham cohomology with pairings arising from duality theory. Such equivariant discriminants are shown to break up naturally into a metric part and a signature part. In a previous paper we described the equivariant Arakelov discriminants, obtained by endowing the equivariant determinant of de Rham cohomology with various metrics. In this paper we study the associated equivariant signature information; in particular, we show tha…
Let $G$ be a wreath product of the form $C_2 \wr H$, where $C_2$ is the cyclic group of order 2. Under mild conditions for $H$ we determine the asymptotic behavior of the counting functions for number fields $K/k$ with Galois group $G$ and bounded discriminant. Those counting functions grow linearly with the norm of the discriminant and this result coincides with a conjecture of Malle. Up to a constant factor these groups have the same asymptotic behavior as the conjectured one for symmetric groups.
We present a method for computing complete lists of number fields in cases where the Galois group, as an abstract group, appears as a Galois group in smaller degree. We apply this method to find the twenty-five octic fields with Galois group $\textrm{PSL}_2(7)$ and smallest absolute discriminant. We carry out a number of related computations, including determining the octic field with Galois group $2^3{:}\textrm{GL}_3(2)$ of smallest absolute discriminant.
Let K be a Galois number field of prime degree $\ell$. Heilbronn showed that for a given $\ell$ there are only finitely many such fields that are norm-Euclidean. In the case of $\ell=2$ all such norm-Euclidean fields have been identified, but for $\ell\neq 2$, little else is known. We give the first upper bounds on the discriminants of such fields when $\ell>2$. Our methods lead to a simple algorithm which allows one to generate a list of candidate norm-Euclidean fields up to a given discriminant, and we provide some computational results.
For any integer n >= 2 and any nonnegative integers r,s with r+2s = n, we give an unconditional construction of infinitely many monic irreducible polynomials of degree n with integer coefficients having squarefree discriminant and exactly r real roots. These give rise to number fields of degree n, signature (r,s), Galois group S_n, and squarefree discriminant; we may also force the discriminant to be coprime to any given integer. The number of fields produced with discriminant in the range [-N, N] is at least c N^(1/(n-1)). A corollary is that for each n \geq 3, infinitely many quadratic numbe…
We express the discriminant of the polynomial relations of the fusion ring, in any conformal field theory, as the product of the rows of the modular matrix to the power -2. The discriminant is shown to be an integer, always, which is a product of primes which divide the level. Detailed formulas for the discriminant are given for all WZW conformal field theories.
Let n be an odd number and F an imaginary quadratic field with odd discriminant. We show that there exists infinitely many cubic fields K such that the class number of K is divisible by n and the Galois closure of K contains F.
We give an upper bound on the number of extensions of a fixed number field of prescribed degree and discriminant less than X; these bounds improve on work of Schmidt. We also prove various related results, such as lower bounds for the number of extensions and upper bounds for Galois extensions.
In \cite{S}, Shyr derived an analogue of Dirichlet's class number formula for arithmetic Tori. We use this formula to derive a Brauer-Siegel formula for Tori, relating the Discriminant of a torus to the product of its regulator and class number. We apply this formula to derive asymptotics and lower bounds for Galois orbits of CM points in the Siegel modular variety $A_{g,1}$. Specifically, we ask that the sizes of these orbits grows like a power of Discriminant of the underlying endomorphism algebra. We prove this unconditionally in the case $g\leq 5$, and for all $g$ under the Generalized Rie…
We show that for a large class of finite groups G, the number of Galois extensions E/Q of group G and discriminant $|d_E|\leq y$ grows like a power of $y$ (for some specified exponent). The groups G are the regular Galois groups over Q and the extensions E/Q that we count are obtained by specialization from a given regular Galois extension F/Q(T). The extensions E/Q can further be prescribed any unramified local behavior at each suitably large prime $p\leq \log (y)/δ$ for some $δ\geq 1$. This result is a step toward the Malle conjecture on the number of Galois extensions of given group and bou…
We give an exact formula for the number of $G$-extensions of local function fields $\mathbb{F}_q((t))$ for finite abelian groups $G$ up to a conductor bound. As an application we give a lower bound for the corresponding counting problem by discriminant.
Let $G$ be a Frobenius group with an abelian Frobenius kernel $F$ and let $k$ be a finite extension of $\mathbb{Q}$. We obtain an upper bound for the number of degree $|F|$ algebraic extensions $K/k$ with Galois group $G$ with the norm of the discriminant $\mathcal{N}_{k/\mathbb{Q}}(d_{K/k})$ bounded above by $X$. We extend this method for any group $G$ that has an abelian normal subgroup. If $G$ has an abelian normal subgroup, then we obtain upper bounds for the number of degree $|G|$ extensions $N/k$ with Galois group $G$ with bounded norm of the discriminant. Malle made a conjecture about w…
In this paper, we study the actions of profinite groups on Cantor sets which arise from representations of Galois groups of certain fields of rational functions. Such representations are associated to polynomials, and they are called profinite iterated monodromy groups. We are interested in a topological invariant of such actions called the asymptotic discriminant. In particular, we give a complete classification by whether the asymptotic discriminant is stable or wild in the case when the polynomial generating the representation is quadratic. We also study different ways in which a wild asymp…
In this paper we construct number fields ramified at 2 and 3 only, with various moderate-sized non-solvable Galois groups. We construct these fields by specializing three point covers, some from the literature and some new here. The specialization points come from solutions to a generalized Fermat equation. We conclude with a specific suggestion for further research and two general conjectures.
The problem of analyzing the number of number field extensions $L/K$ with bounded (relative) discriminant has been the subject of renewed interest in recent years, with significant advances made by Schmidt, Ellenberg-Venkatesh, Bhargava, Bhargava-Shankar-Wang, and others. In this paper, we use the geometry of numbers and invariant theory of finite groups, in a manner similar to Ellenberg and Venkatesh, to give an upper bound on the number of extensions $L/K$ with fixed degree, bounded relative discriminant, and specified Galois closure.
Let $K$ be an imaginary quadratic field of discriminant $d_K$ with ring of integers $\mathcal{O}_K$. When $K$ is different from $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-1})$ and $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-3})$, we consider a certain specific model for the elliptic curve $E_K$ with $j(E_K)=j(\mathcal{O}_K)$ which is defined over $\mathbb{Q}(j(E_K))$. In this paper, for each positive integer $N$ we compare the extension field of $\mathbb{Q}$ generated by the coordinates of $N$-torsion points on $E_K$ with the ray class field $K_{(N)}$ of $K$ modulo $N\mathcal{O}_K$. By using this result we investigate the image of a $p$-adic…
We obtain strong information on the asymptotic behaviour of the counting function for nilpotent Galois extensions with bounded discriminant of arbitrary number fields. This extends previous investigations for the case of abelian groups. In particular, the result confirms a conjecture by the second author on this function for arbitrary groups in the nilpotent case. We further prove compatibility of the conjecture with taking wreath products with the cyclic group of order 2 and give examples in degree up to 8.
Let K be a fixed number field and G its absolute Galois group. We give a bound C(K), depending only on the degree, the class number and the discriminant of K, such that for any elliptic curve E defined over K and any prime number p strictly larger than C(K), the image of the representation of G attached to the p-torsion points of E contains a subgroup of homotheties of index smaller than 12.
We give an asymptotic formula for the number of $D_4$ quartic extensions of a function field with discriminant equal to some bound, essentially reproducing the analogous result over number fields due Cohen, Diaz y Diaz, and Olivier, but with a stronger error term. We also study the relative density of $D_4$ and $S_4$ quartic extensions of a function field and show that with mild conditions, the number of $D_4$ quartic extensions can far exceed the number of $S_4$ quartic extensions
We describe the relations among the $\ell$-torsion conjecture, a conjecture of Malle giving an upper bound for the number of extensions, and the discriminant multiplicity conjecture. We prove that the latter two conjectures are equivalent in some sense. Altogether, the three conjectures are equivalent for the class of solvable groups. We then prove the $\ell$-torsion conjecture for $\ell$-groups and the other two conjectures for nilpotent groups.
In this paper, we consider integral and irreducible binary quartic forms whose Galois group is isomorphic to a subgroup of the dihedral group of order eight. We first show that the set of all such forms is a union of families indexed by integral binary quadratic forms $f(x,y)$ of non-zero discriminant. Then, we shall enumerate the $\operatorname{GL}_2(\mathbb{Z})$-equivalence classes of all such forms associated to a fixed $f(x,y)$.
We determine the density of monic integer polynomials of given degree $n>1$ that have squarefree discriminant; in particular, we prove for the first time that the lower density of such polynomials is positive. Similarly, we prove that the density of monic integer polynomials $f(x)$, such that $f(x)$ is irreducible and $\mathbb Z[x]/(f(x))$ is the ring of integers in its fraction field, is positive, and is in fact given by $ζ(2)^{-1}$. It also follows from our methods that there are $\gg X^{1/2+1/n}$ monogenic number fields of degree $n$ having associated Galois group $S_n$ and absolute discrim…
Continuing the line of thought of an earlier work, we provide the first infinite family of quadratic number fields with everywhere unramified Galois extensions of Galois group $SL_2(5)$, the (unique) smallest nonsolvable group for which this problem was previously open. Our approach also improves upon previous work by yielding the first infinite family of real-quadratic fields possessing an unramified Galois extension whose Galois group is perfect and not generated by involutions. Our result also amounts to a new existence result on quintic number fields with squarefree discriminant and additi…
We study the Galois groups of polynomials arising from a compatible family of representations with big orthogonal monodromy. We show that the Galois groups are usually as large as possible given the constraints imposed on them by a functional equation and discriminant considerations. As an application, we consider the Frobenius polynomials arising from the middle étale cohomology of hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{F}_q}^{2n+1}$ of degree at least $3$. We also consider the $L$-functions of quadratic twists of fixed degree of an elliptic curve over a function field $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$. To de…
In previous works, we described algorithms to compute the number field cut out by the mod ell representation attached to a modular form of level N=1. In this article, we explain how these algorithms can be generalised to forms of higher level N. As an application, we compute the Galois representations attached to a few forms which are supersingular or admit a companion mod ell with ell=13 (and soon ell=41), and we obtain previously unknown number fields of degree ell+1 whose Galois closure has Galois group PGL(2,ell) and a root discriminant that is so small that it beats records for such numbe…
The main purpose of this paper is to extend results on isomorphism types of the abelianized absolute Galois group $\mathcal G_K^{ab}$, where $K$ denotes imaginary quadratic field. In particular, we will show that if the class number $h_K$ of an imaginary quadratic field $K$ different from $\mathbb Q(i)$, $\mathbb Q(\sqrt{-2})$ is a fixed prime number $p$ then there are only two isomorphism types of $\mathcal G_K^{ab}$ which could occur. For instance, this result implies that imaginary quadratic fields of the discriminant $D_K$ belonging to the set $\{-35, -51, -91, -115, -123, -187, -235,$ $ -…
We determine the shapes of all degree $4$ number fields that are Galois. These lie in four infinite families depending on the Galois group and the tame versus wild ramification of the field. In the $V_4$ case, each family is a two-dimensional space of orthorhombic lattices and we show that the shapes are equidistributed, in a regularized sense, in these spaces as the discriminant goes to infinity (with respect to natural measures). We also show that the shape is a complete invariant in some natural families of $V_4$-quartic fields. For $C_4$-quartic fields, each family is a one-dimensional spa…
We establish the faithfulness of a geometric action of the absolute Galois group of the rationals that can be defined on the discriminantal variety associated to a finite complex reflection group, and review some possible connections with the profinite Grothendieck-Teichmüller group.
We construct explicit examples of cubic surfaces over $\bbQ$ such that the 27 lines are acted upon by the index two subgroup of the maximal possible Galois group. This is the simple group of order $25 920$. Our examples are given in pentahedral normal form with rational coefficients. For such cubic surfaces, we study the discriminant and show its relation to the index two subgroup. On the corresponding parameter space, we search for rational points, discuss their asymptotic, and construct an accumulating subvariety.
Let $n \geq 6$ be an integer. We prove that the number of number fields with Galois group $A_n$ and absolute discriminant at most $X$ is asymptotically at least $X^{1/8 + O(1/n)}$. For $n \geq 8$ this improves upon the previously best known lower bound of $X^{(1 - \frac{2}{n!})/(4n - 4) - ε}$, due to Pierce, Turnage-Butterbaugh, and Wood.
In this paper we give a survey of recent methods for the asymptotic and exact enumeration of number fields with given Galois group of the Galois closure. In particular, the case of fields of degree up to 4 is now almost completely solved, both in theory and in practice. The same methods also allow construction of the corresponding complete tables of number fields with discriminant up to a given bound.
Bhargava proved a formula for counting, with certain weights, degree n etale extensions of a local field, or equivalently, local Galois representations to S_n. This formula is motivation for his conjectures about the density of discriminants of S_n-number fields. We prove there are analogous ``mass formulas'' that count local Galois representations to any group that can be formed from symmetric groups by wreath products and cross products, corresponding to counting towers and direct sums of etale extensions. We obtain as a corollary that the above mentioned groups have rational character table…
We study the number $N(n, A_n, X)$ of number fields of degree $n$ whose Galois closure has Galois group $A_n$ and whose discriminant is bounded by $X$. By a conjecture of Malle, we expect that $N(n, A_n, X) \sim C_n X^{1/2} (\log X)^{b_n}$, for constants $b_n$ and $C_n$. For $5 < n < 84394$, the best known upper bound is $N(n, A_n, X) \ll X^{\frac{n + 2}{4}}$; this bound follows from Schmidt's Theorem, which implies there are $\ll X^{\frac{n + 2}{4}}$ number fields of degree $n$. (For $n > 84393$, there are better bounds due to Ellenberg and Venkatesh.) We show, using the important work of Pil…
In this paper, we consider minimal equicontinuous actions of discrete countably generated groups on Cantor sets, obtained from the arboreal representations of absolute Galois groups of fields. In particular, we study the asymptotic discriminant of these actions. The asymptotic discriminant is an invariant obtained by restricting the action to a sequence of nested clopen sets, and studying the isotropies of the enveloping group actions in such restricted systems. An enveloping (Ellis) group of such an action is a profinite group. A large class of actions of profinite groups on Cantor sets is gi…
Let $S$ be a Shimura variety and let $h$ be a Weil height function on $S$. We conjecture that the heights of special points in $S$ are discriminant negligible. Assuming this conjecture to be true, we prove that the sizes of the Galois orbits of special points grow as a fixed power of their discriminant (an invariant we will define in the text). In the case of Shimura varieties of abelian type, the height bound holds by the recently proved averaged Colmez formula, and our theorem gives a new proof of Tsimerman's Galois lower bound in this case. The main novelty is that our approach avoids the u…
A semicommutative finite group scheme is a finite group scheme which can be obtained from commutative finite group schemes by iterated performing semidirect products with commutative kernels and taking quotients by normal subgroups. In this article, for an étale tame semicommutative finite group scheme $G$, we give a lower bound on the number of connected $G$-torsors of bounded height (such as discriminant).
We analyze the probability that, for a fixed finite set of primes S, a random, monic, degree n polynomial f(x) with integer coefficients in a box of side B around 0 satisfies: (i) f(x) is irreducible over the rationals, with splitting field over the rationals having Galois group $S_n$; (ii) the polynomial discriminant Disc(f) is relatively prime to all primes in S; (iii) f(x) has a prescribed splitting type at each prime p in S. The limit probabilities as $B \to \infty$ are described in terms of values of a one-parameter family of measures on $S_n$, called splitting measures, with parameter $z…
Malle proposed a conjecture for counting the number of $G$-extensions $L/K$ with discriminant bounded above by $X$, denoted $N(K,G;X)$, where $G$ is a fixed transitive subgroup $G\subset S_n$ and $X$ tends towards infinity. We introduce a refinement of Malle's conjecture, if $G$ is a group with a nontrivial Galois action then we consider the set of crossed homomorphisms in $Z^1(K,G)$ (or equivalently $1$-coclasses in $H^1(K,G)$) with bounded discriminant. This has a natural interpretation given by counting $G$-extensions $F/L$ for some fixed $L$ and prescribed extension class $F/L/K$. If $T$ i…
We report extensive computational evidence that Gauss period equations are minimal discriminant polynomials for primitive elements representing Abelian (cyclic) polynomials of prime degrees $p$. By computing 200 period equations up to $p=97$, we significantly extend tables in the compendious number fields database of Klüners and Malle. Up to $p=7$, period equations reproduce known results proved to have minimum discriminant. For $11\leq p\leq 23$, period equations coincide with 53 known but unproved cases of minimum discriminant in the database, and fill a gap of 19 missing cases. For $29\leq …
We consider p-extensions of number fields such that the filtration of the Galois group by higher ramification groups is of prescribed finite length. We extend well-known properties of tame extensions to this more general setting; for instance, we show that these towers, when infinite, are ``asymptotically good'' (an explicit bound for the root discriminant is given). We study the difficult problem of bounding the relation-rank of the Galois groups in question. Results of Gordeev and Wingberg imply that the relation-rank can tend to infinity when the set of ramified primes is fixed but the leng…
Let $X/ \mathbb{C}$ be a K3 surface with complex multiplication by the ring of integers of a CM field $E$. We show that $X$ can always be defined over an Abelian extension $K/E$ explicitly determined by the discriminant form of the lattice $\mathrm{NS}(X)$. We then construct a model of $X$ over $K$ via Galois-descent and we study some of its basic properties, in particular we determine its Galois representation explicitly. Finally, we apply our results to give upper and lower bounds for a minimal field of definition for $X$ in terms of the class number of $E$ and the discriminant of $\mathrm{N…
