Abstract. In this paper we give asymptotic formulas for the number of ℓ-cyclic extensions of the rational function field k = Fq(T ) with prescribed ℓ-class numbers inside some cyclotomic function fields, and density results for ℓ-cyclic extensions of k with certain properties on the ideal class groups.
IntroductionLet Q be the field of rational numbers and ℓ be a prime number. In the 1980s F. Gerth studied extensively the asymptotic behavior of ℓ-cyclic extensions of Q with certain conditions on the ideal class groups and ramified primes. Let us recall Gerth's results more precisely. Write N s,x for the number of ℓ-cyclic extensions of Q with conductor ≤ x and ℓ-class number ℓ s . In [5], it is shown that to obtain an asymptotic formula for N s,x , it suffices to count the number M s+1,x of ℓ-cyclic extensions of Q whose conductor is ≤ x and divisible by exactly s + 1 distinct primes, and whose ℓ-class number is ℓ s . In [6], a matrix M over F ℓ is associated to each ℓ-cyclic extension F of Q with s + 1 ramified primes such that the ℓ-class number of F is ℓ s precisely when rank(M ) = s, and an asymptotic formula for N s,x is given by studying the asymptotic behavior of the number of such matrices. In [8], for ℓ = 2, an effective algorithm for computing the density d t,e (resp. d Let k = F q (T ) be the rational function field over the finite field F q . Let ℓ be a prime number different from the characteristic of k and r be the smallest