Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 May 2013
Let $N/ F$ be an odd-degree Galois extension of number fields with Galois group $G$ and rings of integers ${\mathfrak{O}}_{N} $ and ${\mathfrak{O}}_{F} = \mathfrak{O}$. Let $ \mathcal{A} $ be the unique fractional ${\mathfrak{O}}_{N} $-ideal with square equal to the inverse different of $N/ F$. B. Erez showed that $ \mathcal{A} $ is a locally free $\mathfrak{O}[G] $-module if and only if $N/ F$ is a so-called weakly ramified extension. Although a number of results have been proved regarding the freeness of $ \mathcal{A} $ as a $ \mathbb{Z} [G] $-module, the question remains open. In this paper we prove that $ \mathcal{A} $ is free as a $ \mathbb{Z} [G] $-module provided that $N/ F$ is weakly ramified and under the hypothesis that for every prime $\wp $ of $\mathfrak{O}$ which ramifies wildly in $N/ F$, the decomposition group is abelian, the ramification group is cyclic and $\wp $ is unramified in $F/ \mathbb{Q} $. We make crucial use of a construction due to the first author which uses Dwork’s exponential power series to describe self-dual integral normal bases in Lubin–Tate extensions of local fields. This yields a new and striking relationship between the local norm-resolvent and the Galois Gauss sum involved. Our results generalise work of the second author concerning the case of base field $ \mathbb{Q} $.