A conjectural improvement for inequalities related to regulators of number fields

Abstract

An inequality proved firstly by Remak and then generalized by Friedman shows that there are only finitely many number fields with a fixed signature and whose regulator is less than a prescribed bound. Using this inequality, Astudillo, Diaz y Diaz, Friedman and Ramirez-Raposo succeeded to detect all fields with small regulators having degree less or equal than 7. In this paper we show that a certain upper bound for a suitable polynomial, if true, can improve Remak-Friedman's inequality and allows a classification for some signatures in degree 8 and better results in degree 5 and 7. The validity of the conjectured upper bound is extensively discussed.

arXiv comment19 pages. Accepted for publication in "Bollettino dell'Unione Matematica Italiana"