Leopoldt's conjecture

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In algebraic number theory, Leopoldt's conjecture, introduced by H.-W. Leopoldt (1962, 1975), states that the p-adic regulator of a number field does not vanish. The p-adic regulator is an analogue of the usual regulator defined using p-adic logarithms instead of the usual logarithms, introduced by H.-W. Leopoldt (1962).

Formulation

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Let K be a number field and for each prime P of K above some fixed rational prime p, let UP denote the local units at P and let U1,P denote the subgroup of principal units in UP. Set

 

Then let E1 denote the set of global units ε that map to U1 via the diagonal embedding of the global units in E.

Since   is a finite-index subgroup of the global units, it is an abelian group of rank  , where   is the number of real embeddings of   and   the number of pairs of complex embeddings. Leopoldt's conjecture states that the  -module rank of the closure of   embedded diagonally in   is also  

Leopoldt's conjecture is known in the special case where   is an abelian extension of   or an abelian extension of an imaginary quadratic number field: Ax (1965) reduced the abelian case to a p-adic version of Baker's theorem, which was proved shortly afterwards by Brumer (1967). Mihăilescu (2009, 2011) has announced a proof of Leopoldt's conjecture for all CM-extensions of  .

Colmez (1988) expressed the residue of the p-adic Dedekind zeta function of a totally real field at s = 1 in terms of the p-adic regulator. As a consequence, Leopoldt's conjecture for those fields is equivalent to their p-adic Dedekind zeta functions having a simple pole at s = 1.

References

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