On p-adic L-functions and cyclotomic fields. II

Abstract

Let p be a prime. If one adjoins to Q all pn-th roots of unity for n = 1,2,3, …, then the resulting field will contain a unique subfield Q∞ such that Q∞ is a Galois extension of Q with Gal (Q∞/Q) Zp, the additive group of p-adic integers. We will denote Gal (Q∞/Q) by Γ. In a previous paper [6], we discussed a conjecture relating p-adic L-functions to certain arithmetically defined representation spaces for Γ. Now by using some results of Iwasawa, one can reformulate that conjecture in terms of certain other representation spaces for Γ. This new conjecture, which we believe may be more susceptible to generalization, will be stated below.