The strategy of pattern recognition via Artin transfers applied to finite towers of 2-class fields

The isomorphism type of the Galois group of the 2-class field tower of quadratic number fields having a 2-class group with abelian type invariants (4,4) is determined by means of information on the transfer of 2-classes to unramified abelian 2-extensions, collected in the Artin pattern. In recent investigations by Benjamin and Snyder, the length of the tower of such fields has turned out to be dependent on the rank of the 2-class group of the first Hilbert 2-class field. Significant progress is achieved by extending the pool of possible metabelian 2-groups of the second Hilbert 2-class field from the SmallGroups database, resp. Hall-Senior classification, with the aid of the p-group generation algorithm, and sifting the pool by means of pattern recognition.