Governing fields for hyperelliptic function fields

Abstract

We study the 8-rank of class groups of hyperelliptic function fields and show that such 8-ranks are governed by splitting conditions in so-called governing fields. A similar result was proven for quadratic number fields by Stevenhagen, who used a theory of R\'edei symbols and R\'edei reciprocity to do so. We introduce a version of the R\'edei reciprocity law for function fields and use this to show existence of governing fields.