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Topics in analytic number theory, Lent 2013.

Lecture 14: Constructing the zero detector I


Bob Hough
May 29, 2013
Reference for this lecture: Bombieri, Section 6.
Recall from last lecture, that we proved the following zero-density estimate.
Lemma (Lemma 13.2). Let mod q primitive, with q T and let |v| T . Let
1/ log T r < 41 . Then (s, ) has O(r log T ) zeros in the disc |s(1+iv)| < r.
The conclusion is valid also for (s) under the restriction |v| 2.
We now deduce a pair of consequences.
The following theorem is not needed directly for Bombieris theorem, but it
is useful for applications.
Theorem 14.1. Let mod q primitive with q T and let also 2 |v| T .
There exists c > 0 such that for > 1 logc T ,
|

L0
( + iv)| = O(log T ),
L

| log L( + iv)| log log T + O(1).

The conclusion is valid also for . It holds without the restriction 2 |v| if
L(s, ) does not have an exceptional zero.
Proof. First suppose 0 = 1 +

1
log T

. Then

|L0 /L( + iv, )| 0 /() 1/ + O(1) = O(log T ),


while
| log L( + iv, )| log () log(1/( 1) + O(1)) log log T + O(1).
So it will suffice to consider < 0 .
Let c0 be the constant from the zero-free region, and let c <
1 logc T we have

c0
2.

For

L0
L0
L0
( + iv, ) = O(log T ) ( + iv, ) + (0 + iv, )
L
L
L

X 
1
1
= O(log T )

.
( + iv ) 0 + iv
(,)=0
|v|<1

The sum over zeros is bounded by


X
X
0jlog log T

0
| + iv ||0 + iv |

(,)=0
2j c
log T

j+1

<|(+iv)| 2log Tc

Observe that
| ( + iv)| | (1 + iv)| 2| ( + iv)|
by the choice c < c0 /2. Hence, by the zero density lemma, the number of
2j+1 c
2j c
j
zeros satisfying log
T < | ( + iv)| log T = O(2 ). Thus, using that
| 0 | = O(1/ log T ) and | (0 + iv)| | ( + iv)|, the last sum over
zeros is bounded by


X
O(1/ log T )
j
 log T.

2
22j c2 /(log T )2
0jlog log T

This proves the bound for L0 /L.


The bound for log L follows from
Z

| log L( + iv, )| | log L(0 + iv, )| +

|L0 /L( 0 + iv, )|d 0 ;

the integral is O(1) since its length is O(1/ log T ) and the integrand is O(log T ),
while | log L(0 + iv, )| log log T + O(1).
The following lemma will be used to shift the weight in our zero-detecting
polynomial towards larger primes.
Lemma 14.2. Let L(s, ) be any L-function to conductor q T and let |v| T .
Let log1 T r c for some small constant c, and let A 1 be another constant,
such that Ar 41 . For k 1 and s = 1 + iv + r we have
1
(1)k d k L0
( ) ( (1 + iv + r, )) = =0

k! ds
L
(s 1)k+1

X
(,0 )=0
|(1+r+iv)|Ar

1
(s )k+1

+O((Ar)k log T ).
(0 is the character inducing ).
Proof. Let
D(s) = L0 /L(s) =0

1
+
s1

X
(,0 )=0
|(1+iv)|<4

1
s

and note that


1
(1)k d k L0
( ) ( (1 + iv + r, ))=0
+
k! ds
L
(s 1)k+1

X
(,0 )=0
|(1+r+iv)|Ar

(1)k d k
( ) D(s)
k! ds

1
(s )k+1

X
(,0 )=0
Ar<|(1+r+iv)|<4

1
(s )k+1

so it will suffice to bound separately the derivative of D(s) and the sum over
zeros.
We bound D(s) by using Cauchys integral formula. Uniformly on the circle
|s (1 + iv)| = 1/2 we have D(s) = O(log T ) this is a consequence of our
formula for the logarithmic derivative in Lemma 7.3, together with the fact that
if 0 induces then L0 /L(s, 0 ) L0 /L(s, ) = O(log T ) (Lemma 13.1). Notice,
also, that we have taken zeros in a disc | (1 + iv)| < 4 rather than the strip
| v| < 1, but the number of zeros included in the disc but not the strip is
O(log T ), and each contributes O(1) to the sum.
Hence, by Cauchys integral formula, uniformly inside the disc |s(1+iv)|
1
we
have
4
(1)k
k!

d
ds

k
D(s) =

1
2i

Z
D(z)
|z(1+iv)|= 21

dz
= O(4k log T ),
(s z)k+1

which is acceptable.
It remains to bound the sum over zeros with 1/(Ar) < |(1+iv +r)| 4.
Splitting the sum dyadically and applying Lemma 13.2 (note that Ar log1 T
so there are  log log T terms) we obtain the bound

X
0jlog log T

X 2j Ar log T
#{ : 2j Ar | (1 + r + iv)| < 2j+1 Ar}

j
k+1
(2 Ar)
(2j Ar)k+1
j=0
 (Ar)k log T.

The above lemma suggests that if there are zeros of L(s, ) near 1 + iv, then
we will be able to find large values of the derivative
(1)k (

X (pn )(n log p)k+1


d k
) (L0 /L(1 + iv + r, ) =
.
ds
npn(1+iv+r)
p,n

Notice that if k is large, the power of (log p)k shifts the weight towards larger
primes, which will be useful for us. However, recall that we could immediately
conclude that L0 /L was large, since all zeros produced a contribution with
positive real part. If there are multiple zeros and we consider higher derivatives
then it will no longer be the case that the different zeros necessarily constructively interfere. The following Theorem of Turan says that if we look at many
derivatives at once, so long as the number of derivatives is greater than the
number of zeros then some of the derivatives must be somewhat large.
Theorem (Tur
ans power sum method). Let z1 , ..., zN C and let K N .
There exists k, K + 1 k K + N such that
k
|z1k + ... + zN
| (32)K | max |zi ||k .

We will prove this theorem in the next lecture.

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