Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2010 / iii / Paper 25 / 3

For $\Re s>1$, the Euler products areThe Dirichlet character is completely multiplicative, and unique prime factorization expands each finite product into the terms of the corresponding Dirichlet series supported on those primes. Absolute convergence permits passage to all primes. More strongly, the absolutely convergent Euler product logarithm givessince the sum of absolute values is bounded by ${\sum }_{n\ge 2}{\sum }_{m\ge 1}{n}^{-m\Re s}/m<\infty$.

We prove nonvanishing of a nonprincipal Dirichlet L-function at one, including real Dirichlet characters. If $\chi$ is nonprincipal modulo $q$, periodicity and the given Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters bound $A_{\chi }(x)={\sum }_{n\le x}\chi (n)$ by $q$. Partial summation giveswhich is holomorphic for $\Re s>0$ by locally uniform convergence, including after differentiation. The principal Dirichlet character instead haswith a simple pole at one.

For a nonreal Dirichlet character, consider $P(s)={\prod }_{\chi \mathrm{mod}q}L(s,\chi )$. For real $\sigma >1$, its Euler product logarithm isThe given character inversion with $a=1$ makes each inner sum either $\phi (q)$ or zero, so $P(\sigma )\ge 1$. If $L(1,\chi )=0$ for a nonreal Dirichlet character, then $L(1,\overline{\chi })=0$ as well, since their values at real $s$ are conjugate. These are two distinct factors. All nonprincipal factors are holomorphic at one, and only the principal factor has a simple pole. Their two zeros would force $P(\sigma )\to 0$, a contradiction.

For a real nonprincipal Dirichlet character, suppose $L(1,\chi )=0$. Then $G(s)=\zeta (s)L(s,\chi )$ is holomorphic throughout $\Re s>0$: the supplied continuation of the Riemann zeta function has no other pole there, and the zero cancels the pole at one. On $\Re s>1$ its Dirichlet series has coefficientsTo check the sign explicitly, for a prime power $p^j$ the local sum is $j+1$ if $\chi (p)=1$, is $1$ for even $j$ and $0$ for odd $j$ if $\chi (p)=-1$, and is $1$ if $\chi (p)=0$. Multiplication over prime factors proves nonnegativity and $g_{m^2}\ge 1$. Also $g_n\le \tau (n)$, so termwise derivatives at $s=2$ are justified by absolute convergence:The disc $|s-2|<2$ lies in $\Re s>0$. Its Taylor series therefore converges at $s=1/2$, and Tonelli theorem givesThis contradicts holomorphy at $1/2$. It is the positive-coefficient argument behind the Landau theorem for a Dirichlet series with nonnegative coefficients, proved here rather than invoked. Thus $L(1,\chi )\ne 0$ for every nonprincipal Dirichlet character.

It remains to detect the primes. For real $\sigma >1$, the Euler product logarithm satisfiesuniformly as $\sigma \downarrow 1$: terms with $m\ge 2$ are bounded in absolute value by ${\sum }_{n\ge 2}{\sum }_{m\ge 2}{n}^{-m}/m<\infty$. For a nonprincipal Dirichlet character, a holomorphic logarithm of $L$ exists near one by the nonvanishing just proved. On a short real interval it differs from the Euler product logarithm by a fixed multiple of $2\pi i$, so the prime sum stays bounded. For the principal Dirichlet character, the simple pole instead givesApplying the supplied Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters for a reduced residue class $a$ now yieldsThe right side tends to infinity, whereas a finite set of primes would give a bounded left side. Therefore every residue class coprime to $q$ contains infinitely many primes, proving the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions.