Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
We study the second Chinburg invariant of a Galois extension of number fields. The Chinburg invariant lies in the class-group of the integral group-ring of the Galois group of the extension. A procedure is given whereby to evaluate the invariant in the case of the real cyclotomic case of regular prime power conductor and their subextensions of p-power degree. The invariant is shown to be zero in the latter cases, which yields new examples giving an affirmative answer to a question of Chinburg ([1], p. 358) which has come to be known as ‘Chinburg's Second Conjecture’ ([3], §4·2).