On number fields with given ramification

Abstract

Let E/F be a CM field split above a finite place v of F, let l be a rational prime number which is prime to v, and let S be the set of places of E dividing lv. If E_S denotes a maximal algebraic extension of E unramified outside S, and if u is a place of E dividing v, we show that any field embedding E_S \to \bar{E_u} has a dense image. The "unramified outside S" number fields we use are cut out from the l-adic cohomology of the "simple" Shimura varieties studied by Kottwitz and Harris-Taylor. The main ingredients of the proof are then the local Langlands correspondence for GL_n, the main global theorem of Harris-Taylor, and the construction of automorphic representations with prescribed local behaviours. We explain how stronger results would follow from the knowledge of some expected properties of Siegel modular forms, and we discuss the case of the Galois group of a maximal algebraic extension of Q unramified outside a single prime p and infinity.