Class fields, Dirichlet characters and extended genus fields of global function fields

Abstract: We obtain the extended genus field of an abelian extension of a rational function field. We follow the definition of Angl`es and Jaulent, which uses class field theory. First we show that the natural definition of extended genus field of a cyclotomic function field obtained by means of Dirichlet characters is the same as the one given by Angl`es and Jaulent. Next we study the extended genus field of a finite abelian extension of a rational function field along the lines of the study of genus fields of abelian extensions of rational function fields and compare this approach with the one given by Angl`es and Jaulent.