On the Galois structure of units in totally real $p$-rational number fields

Abstract

The theory of factor-equivalence of integral lattices establishes a far-reaching relationship between the Galois module structure of the unit group of the ring of integers of a number field and its arithmetic. For a number field $K$ that is Galois over $\mathbb{Q}$ or an imaginary quadratic field, we prove a necessary and sufficient condition on the quotients of class numbers of subfields of $K$, for the quotient $E_{K}$ of the unit group of the ring of integers of $K$ modulo the subgroup of roots of unity to be factor equivalent to the standard cyclic Galois module. Using strong arithmetic properties of totally real $p$-rational number fields, we prove that the non-abelian $p$-rational $p$-extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ do not admit Minkowski units, thereby extending a result of Burns to non-abelian number fields. We also study the relative Galois module structure of $E_{L}$ for varying Galois extensions $L/F$ of totally real $p$-rational number fields whose Galois groups are isomorphic to a fixed finite group $G$. In that case, we prove that there exists a finite set $\Omega$ of $\mathbb{Z}_p[G]$-lattices such that for every $L$, $\mathbb{Z}_{p} \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} E_{L}$ is factor equivalent to $\mathbb{Z}_{p}[G]^{n} \oplus X$ as $\mathbb{Z}_p[G]$-lattices for some $X \in \Omega$ and an integer $n \geq 0$.