Geometric families of multiple elliptic Gamma functions and arithmetic applications, III

Source abstract

This is the third paper in a series where we study arithmetic applications of the higher elliptic Gamma functions. In the first two articles in this series, we defined geometric families of these functions and proved that they satisfy coboundary and cocycle relations under the action of special linear groups and associated congruence subgroups. The main purpose of the present paper is to present a construction of conjectural higher elliptic units above number fields with exactly one complex place as special values of higher elliptic Gamma functions, upgrading the construction carried out by Bergeron, Charollois and García for complex cubic fields. These higher elliptic units are obtained by evaluating a multiplicative $(n-2)$-cocycle built from higher elliptic Gamma functions against a $(n-2)$-cycle associated to some group of totally positive units of a given number field of degree $n$ with exactly one complex place. We conjecture that these higher elliptic units are algebraic units which belong to prescribed abelian extensions of the base field where they are evaluated and that they satisfy a Kronecker limit formula which relates the logarithm of their modulus to values of derivatives of partial zeta functions at $s = 0$ in the base field. We showcase our conjecture on various examples for number fields of degree 3, 4 and 5.