Stark units and the main conjectures for totally real fields

Abstract

AbstractThe main theorem of the author’s thesis suggests that it should be possible to lift the Kolyvagin systems of Stark units, constructed by the author in an earlier paper, to a Kolyvagin system over the cyclotomic Iwasawa algebra. In this paper, we verify that this is indeed the case. This construction of Kolyvagin systems over the cyclotomic Iwasawa algebra from Stark units provides the first example towards a more systematic study of Kolyvagin system theory over an Iwasawa algebra when the core Selmer rank (in the sense of Mazur and Rubin) is greater than one. As a result of this construction, we reduce the main conjectures of Iwasawa theory for totally real fields to a statement in the context of local Iwasawa theory, assuming the truth of the Rubin–Stark conjecture and Leopoldt’s conjecture. This statement in the local Iwasawa theory context turns out to be interesting in its own right, as it suggests a relation between the solutions to p-adic and complex Stark conjectures.