On Brauer-Kuroda type relations of S-class numbers in dihedral extensions

Alex Bartel

Published 2009-04-16, updated 2011-03-03Version 4

Let F/k be a Galois extension of number fields with dihedral Galois group of order 2q, where q is an odd integer. We express a certain quotient of S-class numbers of intermediate fields, arising from Brauer-Kuroda relations, as a unit index. Our formula is valid for arbitrary extensions with Galois group D_{2q} and for arbitrary Galois-stable sets of primes S, containing the Archimedean ones. Our results have curious applications to determining the Galois module structure of the units modulo the roots of unity of a D_{2q}-extension from class numbers and S-class numbers. The techniques we use are mainly representation theoretic and we consider the representation theoretic results we obtain to be of independent interest.