L-function

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The Riemann zeta function can be thought of as the archetype for all L-functions. Riemann-Zeta-Func.png
The Riemann zeta function can be thought of as the archetype for all L-functions.

In mathematics, an L-function is a meromorphic function on the complex plane, associated to one out of several categories of mathematical objects. An L-series is a Dirichlet series, usually convergent on a half-plane, that may give rise to an L-function via analytic continuation. The Riemann zeta function is an example of an L-function, and one important conjecture involving L-functions is the Riemann hypothesis and its generalization.

Contents

The theory of L-functions has become a very substantial, and still largely conjectural, part of contemporary analytic number theory. In it, broad generalisations of the Riemann zeta function and the L-series for a Dirichlet character are constructed, and their general properties, in most cases still out of reach of proof, are set out in a systematic way. Because of the Euler product formula there is a deep connection between L-functions and the theory of prime numbers.

The mathematical field that studies L-functions is sometimes called analytic theory of L-functions.

Construction

We distinguish at the outset between the L-series, an infinite series representation (for example the Dirichlet series for the Riemann zeta function), and the L-function, the function in the complex plane that is its analytic continuation. The general constructions start with an L-series, defined first as a Dirichlet series, and then by an expansion as an Euler product indexed by prime numbers. Estimates are required to prove that this converges in some right half-plane of the complex numbers. Then one asks whether the function so defined can be analytically continued to the rest of the complex plane (perhaps with some poles).

It is this (conjectural) meromorphic continuation to the complex plane which is called an L-function. In the classical cases, already, one knows that useful information is contained in the values and behaviour of the L-function at points where the series representation does not converge. The general term L-function here includes many known types of zeta functions. The Selberg class is an attempt to capture the core properties of L-functions in a set of axioms, thus encouraging the study of the properties of the class rather than of individual functions.

Conjectural information

One can list characteristics of known examples of L-functions that one would wish to see generalized:

Detailed work has produced a large body of plausible conjectures, for example about the exact type of functional equation that should apply. Since the Riemann zeta function connects through its values at positive even integers (and negative odd integers) to the Bernoulli numbers, one looks for an appropriate generalisation of that phenomenon. In that case results have been obtained for p-adic L-functions, which describe certain Galois modules.

The statistics of the zero distributions are of interest because of their connection to problems like the generalized Riemann hypothesis, distribution of prime numbers, etc. The connections with random matrix theory and quantum chaos are also of interest. The fractal structure of the distributions has been studied using rescaled range analysis. [2] The self-similarity of the zero distribution is quite remarkable, and is characterized by a large fractal dimension of 1.9. This rather large fractal dimension is found over zeros covering at least fifteen orders of magnitude for the Riemann zeta function, and also for the zeros of other L-functions of different orders and conductors.

Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture

One of the influential examples, both for the history of the more general L-functions and as a still-open research problem, is the conjecture developed by Bryan Birch and Peter Swinnerton-Dyer in the early part of the 1960s. It applies to an elliptic curve E, and the problem it attempts to solve is the prediction of the rank of the elliptic curve over the rational numbers (or another global field): i.e. the number of free generators of its group of rational points. Much previous work in the area began to be unified around a better knowledge of L-functions. This was something like a paradigm example of the nascent theory of L-functions.

Rise of the general theory

This development preceded the Langlands program by a few years, and can be regarded as complementary to it: Langlands' work relates largely to Artin L-functions, which, like Hecke L-functions, were defined several decades earlier, and to L-functions attached to general automorphic representations.

Gradually it became clearer in what sense the construction of Hasse–Weil zeta functions might be made to work to provide valid L-functions, in the analytic sense: there should be some input from analysis, which meant automorphic analysis. The general case now unifies at a conceptual level a number of different research programs.

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Riemann hypothesis is one of the most important conjectures in mathematics. It is a statement about the zeros of the Riemann zeta function. Various geometrical and arithmetical objects can be described by so-called global L-functions, which are formally similar to the Riemann zeta-function. One can then ask the same question about the zeros of these L-functions, yielding various generalizations of the Riemann hypothesis. Many mathematicians believe these generalizations of the Riemann hypothesis to be true. The only cases of these conjectures which have been proven occur in the algebraic function field case.

In representation theory and algebraic number theory, the Langlands program is a web of far-reaching and consequential conjectures about connections between number theory and geometry. Proposed by Robert Langlands, it seeks to relate Galois groups in algebraic number theory to automorphic forms and representation theory of algebraic groups over local fields and adeles. Widely seen as the single biggest project in modern mathematical research, the Langlands program has been described by Edward Frenkel as "a kind of grand unified theory of mathematics."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analytic number theory</span> Exploring properties of the integers with complex analysis

In mathematics, analytic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses methods from mathematical analysis to solve problems about the integers. It is often said to have begun with Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet's 1837 introduction of Dirichlet L-functions to give the first proof of Dirichlet's theorem on arithmetic progressions. It is well known for its results on prime numbers and additive number theory.

In mathematics, a Dirichlet L-series is a function of the form

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In mathematics, the grand Riemann hypothesis is a generalisation of the Riemann hypothesis and generalized Riemann hypothesis. It states that the nontrivial zeros of all automorphic L-functions lie on the critical line with a real number variable and the imaginary unit.

In mathematics, the Dedekind zeta function of an algebraic number field K, generally denoted ζK(s), is a generalization of the Riemann zeta function (which is obtained in the case where K is the field of rational numbers Q). It can be defined as a Dirichlet series, it has an Euler product expansion, it satisfies a functional equation, it has an analytic continuation to a meromorphic function on the complex plane C with only a simple pole at s = 1, and its values encode arithmetic data of K. The extended Riemann hypothesis states that if ζK(s) = 0 and 0 < Re(s) < 1, then Re(s) = 1/2.

In mathematics, the Hasse–Weil zeta function attached to an algebraic variety V defined over an algebraic number field K is a meromorphic function on the complex plane defined in terms of the number of points on the variety after reducing modulo each prime number p. It is a global L-function defined as an Euler product of local zeta functions.

In mathematics, the Selberg class is an axiomatic definition of a class of L-functions. The members of the class are Dirichlet series which obey four axioms that seem to capture the essential properties satisfied by most functions that are commonly called L-functions or zeta functions. Although the exact nature of the class is conjectural, the hope is that the definition of the class will lead to a classification of its contents and an elucidation of its properties, including insight into their relationship to automorphic forms and the Riemann hypothesis. The class was defined by Atle Selberg in, who preferred not to use the word "axiom" that later authors have employed.

In mathematics, an Artin L-function is a type of Dirichlet series associated to a linear representation ρ of a Galois group G. These functions were introduced in 1923 by Emil Artin, in connection with his research into class field theory. Their fundamental properties, in particular the Artin conjecture described below, have turned out to be resistant to easy proof. One of the aims of proposed non-abelian class field theory is to incorporate the complex-analytic nature of Artin L-functions into a larger framework, such as is provided by automorphic forms and the Langlands program. So far, only a small part of such a theory has been put on a firm basis.

In number theory, a Hecke character is a generalisation of a Dirichlet character, introduced by Erich Hecke to construct a class of L-functions larger than Dirichlet L-functions, and a natural setting for the Dedekind zeta-functions and certain others which have functional equations analogous to that of the Riemann zeta-function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riemann hypothesis</span> Conjecture on zeros of the zeta function

In mathematics, the Riemann hypothesis is the conjecture that the Riemann zeta function has its zeros only at the negative even integers and complex numbers with real part 1/2. Many consider it to be the most important unsolved problem in pure mathematics. It is of great interest in number theory because it implies results about the distribution of prime numbers. It was proposed by Bernhard Riemann, after whom it is named.

In mathematics, motivic L-functions are a generalization of Hasse–Weil L-functions to general motives over global fields. The local L-factor at a finite place v is similarly given by the characteristic polynomial of a Frobenius element at v acting on the v-inertial invariants of the v-adic realization of the motive. For infinite places, Jean-Pierre Serre gave a recipe in (Serre 1970) for the so-called Gamma factors in terms of the Hodge realization of the motive. It is conjectured that, like other L-functions, that each motivic L-function can be analytically continued to a meromorphic function on the entire complex plane and satisfies a functional equation relating the L-function L(s, M) of a motive M to L(1 − s, M∨), where M∨ is the dual of the motive M.

In mathematics, an automorphic L-function is a function L(s,π,r) of a complex variable s, associated to an automorphic representation π of a reductive group G over a global field and a finite-dimensional complex representation r of the Langlands dual group LG of G, generalizing the Dirichlet L-series of a Dirichlet character and the Mellin transform of a modular form. They were introduced by Langlands (1967, 1970, 1971).

In mathematics, the arithmetic zeta function is a zeta function associated with a scheme of finite type over integers. The arithmetic zeta function generalizes the Riemann zeta function and Dedekind zeta function to higher dimensions. The arithmetic zeta function is one of the most-fundamental objects of number theory.

References

  1. ↑ Steuding, Jörn (June 2005). "An Introduction to the Theory of L-functions". Preprint.
  2. ↑ O. Shanker (2006). "Random matrices, generalized zeta functions and self-similarity of zero distributions". J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 39 (45): 13983–13997. Bibcode:2006JPhA...3913983S. doi:10.1088/0305-4470/39/45/008. S2CID   54958644.
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