We give a geometric criterion for Dirichlet $L$-functions associated to cyclic characters over the rational function field $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$ to vanish at the central point $s=1/2$. The idea is based on the observation that vanishing at the central point can be interpreted as the existence of a map from the projective curve associated to the character to some abelian variety over $\mathbb{F}_q$. Using this geometric criterion, we obtain a lower bound on the number of cubic characters over $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$ whose $L$-functions vanish at the central point where $q=p^{4n}$ for any rational prime $p \equiv 2 \bmod 3$. We also use recent results about the existence of supersingular superelliptic curves to deduce consequences for the $L$-functions of Dirichlet characters of other orders.
Let $χ$ be a primitive Dirichlet character modulo $q$ and $L(s,χ)$ be the Dirichlet L-function associated to $χ$. Using a new two-piece mollifier we show that $L(\tfrac{1}{2},χ)\ne0$ for at least 34% of the characters in the family.
We investigate the consequences of natural conjectures of Montgomery type on the non-vanishing of Dirichlet $L$-functions at the central point. We first justify these conjectures using probabilistic arguments. We then show using a result of Bombieri, Friedlander and Iwaniec and a result of the author that they imply that almost all Dirichlet $L$-functions do not vanish at the central point. We also deduce a quantitative upper bound for the proportion of Dirichlet $L$-functions for which $L(\frac 12,χ)=0$.
For a rational valued periodic function, we associate a Dirichlet series and provide a new necessary and sufficient condition for the vanishing of this Dirichlet series specialized at positive integers. This question was initiated by Chowla, and carried out by Okada for a particular infinite sum. Our approach relies on the decomposition of the Dirichlet characters in terms of primitive characters. Using this, we find some new family of natural numbers for which a conjecture of Erdös holds. We also characterize rational valued periodic functions for which the associated Dirichlet series vanishe…
We give a new proof that the Riemann zeta function is nonzero in the half-plane $\{s\in{\mathbb C}:σ>1\}$. A novel feature of this proof is that it makes no use of the Euler product for $ζ(s)$.
For any periodic function $f:{\mathbb N} \to {\mathbb C}$ with period $q$, we study the Dirichlet series $L(s,f):=\sum_{n\geq 1} f(n)/n^s.$ It is well-known that this admits an analytic continuation to the entire complex plane except at $s=1$, where it has a simple pole with residue $$ρ:= q^{-1}\sum_{1\leq a\leq q} f(a).$$ Thus, the function is analytic at $s=1$ when $ρ=0$ and in this case, we study its non-vanishing using the theory of linear forms in logarithms and Dirichlet $L$-series. In this way, we give new proofs of an old criterion of Okada for the non-vanishing of $L(1,f)$ as well as …
Let L(E/Q,s) be the L-function of an elliptic curve E defined over the rational field Q. We examine the vanishing and non-vanishing of the central values L(E,1,χ) of the twisted L-function as χranges over Dirichlet characters of given order.
We study a double Dirichlet series of the form $\sum_{d}L(s,χ_{d}χ)χ'(d)d^{-w}$, where $χ$ and $χ'$ are quadratic Dirichlet characters with prime conductors $N$ and $M$ respectively. A functional equation group isomorphic to the dihedral group of order 6 continues the function meromorphically to $\mathbb{C}^{2}$. A convexity bound at the central point is established to be $(MN)^{3/8+\varepsilon}$ and a subconvexity bound of $(MN(M+N))^{1/6+\varepsilon}$ is proven. The developed theory is used to prove an upper bound for the smallest positive integer $d$ such that $L(1/2,χ_{dN})$ does not vanis…
We extend the work of Fouvry, Kowalski and Michel on correlation between Hecke eigenvalues of modular forms and algebraic trace functions in order to establish an asymptotic formula for a generalized cubic moment of modular L-functions at the central point s = 1/2 and for prime moduli q. As an application, we exploit our recent result on the mollification of the fourth moment of Dirichlet L-functions to derive that for any pair $(ω_1,ω_2)$ of multiplicative characters modulo q, there is a positive proportion of $χ$ (mod q) such that $L(χ, 1/2 ), L(χω_1, 1/2 )$ and $L(χω_2, 1/2)$ are simultaneo…
We address the question of non-vanishing of $L(1,f)$ where $f$ is an algebraic-valued, periodic arithmetical function. We do this by characterizing algebraic-valued, periodic functions $f$ for which $L(1,f)=0$. The case of odd functions was resolved by Baker, Birch and Wirsing in 1973. We apply a result of Bass to obtain a characterization for the even functions. We also describe a theorem of the first two authors which says that it is enough to consider only the even and the odd functions in order to obtain a complete characterization.
Given $k\in\mathbb N$, we study the vanishing of the Dirichlet series $$D_k(s,f):=\sum_{n\geq1} d_k(n)f(n)n^{-s}$$ at the point $s=1$, where $f$ is a periodic function modulo a prime $p$. We show that if $(k,p-1)=1$ or $(k,p-1)=2$ and $p\equiv 3\mod 4$, then there are no odd rational-valued functions $f\not\equiv 0$ such that $D_k(1,f)=0$, whereas in all other cases there are examples of odd functions $f$ such that $D_k(1,f)=0$. As a consequence, we obtain, for example, that the set of values $L(1,χ)^2$, where $χ$ ranges over odd characters mod $p$, are linearly independent over $\mathbb Q$.
A well known result of Iwaniec and Sarnak states that for at least one third of the primitive Dirichlet characters to a large modulus q, the associated L-functions do not vanish at the central point. When q is a large power of a fixed prime, we prove the same proportion already among the primitive characters of any given order. The set of primitive characters modulo q of a given order can be described as an orbit under the action of the Galois group of the corresponding cyclotomic field. We also prove a positive proportion of nonvanishing within substantially shorter orbits generated by interm…
In this paper, we study moments of the central values of quartic Dirichlet $L$-functions and establish quantitative non-vanishing result for these $L$-values.
We obtain a second moment formula for the L-series of holomorphic cusp forms, averaged over twists by Dirichlet characters modulo a fixed conductor Q. The estimate obtained has no restrictions on Q, with an error term that has a close to optimal power savings in the exponent. However, one of the contributions to the main term is a special value of a shifted double Dirichlet series. We show that this special value is small on average, and obtain a corresponding estimate for a mean value of the second moment over Q. This mean value is non-zero even when applied to a product of two distinct L-ser…
We establish lower bounds for the $2k$-th moment of families of quadratic Dirichlet $L$-functions at the central point for all real $k<0$, assuming a conjecture of S. Chowla on the non-vanishing of these $L$-values.
We prove a lower bound of the correct order of magnitude in the conductor aspect for small rational moments of Drichlet $L$-functions. Such bounds require new techniques, which is visible from the relationship to non-vanishing results for $L(1/2, χ)$.
The main objective of this article is to compute a first moment for product of Dirichlet and twisted self-dual $GL(3)$ $L$-functions. We discuss the possible simultaneous non vanishing at the central point. We use properties of symmetric squares $L$-functions.
Let C(q,+) be the set of even, primitive Dirichlet characters (mod q). Using the mollifier method we show that L^{(k)}(1/2,chi) is not equal to zero for almost all the characters chi in C(q,+) when k and q are large. Here, L^{(k)}(s,chi) is the k-th derivative of of the Dirichlet L-function L(s,chi).
In this paper, we obtain asymptotic formulas for weighted first moments of central values of families of primitive quadratic Dirichlet $L$-functions whose conductors comprise only primes that split in a given quadratic number field. We then deduce a non-vanishing result of these $L$-functions at the point $s=1/2$.
For a given Dirichlet character $χ(n) = e^{i θ_n}$, we prove central limit theorems for the series $\sum_{p'} \cos θ_{p'}$ for non-principal characters, and $\sum_{p' } \cos (t \log p')$ for principal characters, where $p'$ are integers based on a variant of Cramér's random model for the primes. For non-principal characters, we use these results to show that the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis for the associated $L$-function is true with probability equal to one. For principal characters we propose how to extend these arguments to $\Re (s) = t \to \infty$.
We evaluate some twisted fourth moment of Dirichlet $L$-functions at the central point s=1/2 and for prime moduli q. The principal tool is a careful analysis of a shifted convolution problem involving the divisor function using spectral theory of automorphic forms and bounds for bilinear forms in Kloosterman sums. Having in mind simultaneous non vanishing results, we apply the Theorem to establish an asymptotic formula of a mollified fourth moment for this family of $L$-functions
We prove that more than nine percent of the central values $L(\frac{1}{2},χ_p)$ are non-zero, where $p\equiv 1 \pmod{8}$ ranges over primes and $χ_p$ is the real primitive Dirichlet character of conductor $p$. Previously, it was not known whether a positive proportion of these central values are non-zero. As a by-product, we obtain the order of magnitude of the second moment of $L(\frac{1}{2},χ_p)$, and conditionally we obtain the order of magnitude of the third moment. Assuming the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis, we show that our lower bound for the second moment is asymptotically sharp.
Let pi be an automorphic representation on GL(r, A_Q) for r=1, 2, or 3. Let d be a fundamental discriminant and chi_d the corresponding quadratic Dirichlet character. We consider the question of the least d, relative to the data (level, weight or eigenvalue) of pi, such that the central value of the twisted L-series is nonzero, i.e. L(1/2, pi x chi_d) != 0. For example, let N be the level of pi. Using multiple Dirichlet series, we prove the nonvanishing of a central twisted $L$-value with d << N^{1/2} for GL(1), d << N^1 for GL(2), and d << N^2 for GL(3), the last case assuming that a certain …
In this article, we study the logarithm of the central value $L\left(\frac{1}{2}, χ_D\right)$ in the symplectic family of Dirichlet $L$-functions associated with the hyperelliptic curve of genus $δ$ over a fixed finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ in the limit as $δ\to \infty$. Unconditionally, we show that the distribution of $\log \big|L\left(\frac{1}{2}, χ_D\right)\big|$ is asymptotically bounded above by the Gaussian distribution of mean $\frac{1}{2}\log °(D)$ and variance $\log °(D)$. Assuming a mild condition on the distribution of the low-lying zeros in this family, we obtain the full Gaussian …
The asymptotic formula of the fourth moment of Dirichlet $L$-functions at the central value was predicted in a conjecture by J. B. Conrey, D. W. Farmer, J. P. Keating, M. O. Rubinstein, and N. C. Snaith, and the prime moduli case was proved by M. P. Young in 2011. This work establishes this asymptotic formula for general moduli. The work relies on the study of a special divisor sum function, called $\mathcal{D}_q$-function, which plays a key role in deducing the main terms. Another key ingredient is an application of new bounds for double sums in Kloosterman sums, applied in the estimate of th…
We investigate in this paper the vanishing at $s=1$ of the twisted $L$-functions of elliptic curves $E$ defined over the rational function field $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$ (where $\mathbb{F}_q$ is a finite field of $q$ elements and characteristic $\geq 5$) for twists by Dirichlet characters of prime order $\ell \geq 3$, from both a theoretical and numerical point of view. In the case of number fields, it is predicted that such vanishing is a very rare event, and our numerical data seems to indicate that this is also the case over function fields for non-constant curves. For constant curves, we adapt th…
We study the first and second mollified moments of central values of a quadratic family of Hecke $L$-functions of prime moduli to show that more than nine percent of the members of this family do not vanish at the central values.
We obtain a lower bound on the number of quadratic Dirichlet L-functions over the rational function field which vanish at the central point $s = 1/2$. This is in contrast with the situation over the rational numbers, where a conjecture of Chowla predicts there should be no such L-functions. The approach is based on the observation that vanishing at the central point can be interpreted geometrically, as the existence of a map to a fixed abelian variety from the hyperelliptic curve associated to the character.
Let F(z) be a newform of weight 2k and level one with a trivial character, and assume that F(z) is a non-zero eigenform of all Hecke operators. In this paper, we study nonvanishing for central values of twisted modular L-function of F.
We evaluate the first three moments of central values of a family of qudratic Hecke $L$-functions in the Gaussian field with power saving error terms. In particular, we obtain asymptotic formulas for the first two moments with error terms of size $O(X^{1/2+\varepsilon})$. We also study the first and second mollified moments of the same family of $L$-functions to show that at least $87.5\%$ of the members of this family have non-vanishing central values.
In this paper, we prove that if the Fourier coefficients of a $\mathrm{SL}(3,\mathbb{Z})$ Hecke--Maaß cusp form $π$ are not too correlated with additive characters, then there exists infinitely many Dirichlet characters such that \begin{align*} L\left(\frac{1}{2},π\otimesχ\right)L\left(\frac{1}{2},χ\right)\neq 0. \end{align*} To prove this result, we compute the first twisted moment of these $L$ function averaged over a well chosen set of conductors.
We study simultaneous non-vanishing of $L(\tfrac{1}{2},\di)$ and $L(\tfrac{1}{2},g\otimes \di)$, when $\di$ runs over an orthogonal basis of the space of Hecke-Maass cusp forms for $SL(3,\mathbb{Z})$ and $g$ is a fixed $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ Hecke cusp form of weight $k\equiv 0 \pmod 4$.
Extending a result of Heath-Brown, we establish an asymptotic formula for the fourth moment of central values of Dirichlet $L$-functions attached to primitive characters $\pmod q$.
We prove new congruences between special values of Rankin-Selberg $L$-functions for $\mathrm{GL}(n+1)\times\mathrm{GL}(n)$ over arbitrary number fields. This allows us to control the behavior of $p$-adic $L$-functions under Tate twists and to prove the existence of non-abelian $p$-adic $L$-functions for Hida families on $\mathrm{GL}(n+1)\times\mathrm{GL}(n)$. As an application, we prove strong non-vanishing results for central $L$-values: We give sufficient local conditions for twisted central Rankin-Selberg $L$-values to be generically non-zero.
The purpose of this paper is to generalize our earlier work on the logarithm of the Riemann zeta-function to linear combinations of logarithms of primitive Dirichlet $L$-functions with constant real coefficients. Under the assumption of suitable hypotheses, we prove that as $T\to \infty $, a sequence of the form $(a_1\log|L(ρ,χ_n)|+\dots+a_1\log|L(ρ,χ_n)|)$ has an approximate Gaussian distribution with mean $0$ and variance $ \tfrac{1}{2}\big({a_1}^2+\dots+{a_n}^2 \big)\log\log T$. Here $a_1, \dots, a_n \in \mathbb{R}$, each of the $χ_i$ is a primitive Dirichlet character modulo $M_i$ with $M_…
