Nonprincipal Dirichlet character 2026-10-05
A nonprincipal Dirichlet character differs from the principal Dirichlet character. Equivalently, it is a nontrivial character on the unit group, so its sum over one full residue period is zero by character orthogonality. Its Dirichlet L-function is entire by Mellin continuation of a nonprincipal Dirichlet L-function.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 137 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Extend the Dirichlet character periodically to all integers, putting when . Its Dirichlet L-function, initially on , isThe Euler product follows from unique prime factorization and absolute convergence; a Dirichlet character is completely multiplicative on this extension. Write for the principal Dirichlet character, equal to one on units and zero elsewhere.
For a nonprincipal Dirichlet character , character orthogonality gives . Explicitly, multiplication by a unit with permutes the unit residues and multiplies this sum by , forcing it to vanish. For setThe numerator is at zero and the denominator is , so is bounded, indeed analytic, near zero; it decays exponentially at infinity. Initially for , absolute convergence justifiesThis Mellin transform integral is holomorphic for , locally uniformly in , and division by the Gamma function proves the requested analytic continuation to the left of the line one.
In fact, the same argument proves Mellin continuation of a nonprincipal Dirichlet L-function to the entire plane. If at zero, subtract this Taylor polynomial on and add its explicit integrals:The last integral is holomorphic on . Its possible simple poles at nonpositive integers cancel against zeros of . Letting increase shows that is an entire function, without any primitivity assumption.
For real , use the absolutely convergent Euler product logarithmThe higher-power remainder has the uniform estimateFor a nonprincipal Dirichlet character , invoke the allowed Nonvanishing of a nonprincipal Dirichlet L-function at one. Its holomorphy and nonvanishing give a holomorphic logarithm on a small disk about one. On the connected real interval , differs from this logarithm by a fixed element of : the difference is continuous with exponential one. Thus the prime-character sum near one is bounded. This branch argument is needed for complex-valued Dirichlet characters.
For ,The finite product has a positive limit as , and the residue-one pole of the Riemann zeta function givesHere for nonprincipal Dirichlet characters means bounded complex magnitude.
Finally, for a residue class coprime to , Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters givesOnly primes not dividing occur, so the character orthogonality applies to every term. This sum diverges as . A finite collection of primes would give a bounded sum, a contradiction. Every reduced residue class contains infinitely many primes. This is the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions; the coprimality hypothesis is essential.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 137 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
First establish rational conjugation of finite-index modular subgroups without assuming that is a congruence subgroup. Multiply by a positive integer to obtain an integral matrix , and let . Conjugation is unchanged by this scalar. If , thenThus the principal congruence subgroup is contained in . It has finite index because reduction modulo has finite image. Inside , pullback under conjugation of has relative index at most . ConsequentlyThis argument does not assert that an arbitrary finite-index subgroup contains a principal congruence subgroup.
Use the determinant-normalized slash operatorThe positive real power of the determinant is used; on this reduces to the usual slash operator for modular forms. The automorphy factor identity gives the right-action rule .
A modular form on a finite-index subgroup of integer weight is a holomorphic function on the complex upper half-plane, invariant under this weight- action of , and holomorphic at a cusp at each of its cusps. A cusp of a modular group is a orbit in . If carries infinity to its representative, choose a positive integer with . Such exists by finite index. Then is periodic and has a convergent expansion in near zero; holomorphy means no negative exponents, and being a cusp form means zero constant term. Using an actual translation period avoids possible signs if a smaller width of a cusp is defined only modulo the center, particularly in odd weights.
For cusp holomorphy under rational slash operators, choose with , possible by completing a primitive integer pair to a determinant-one matrix. Then , with . Up to a nonzero constant factor,The imaginary part of the argument tends to infinity with that of , so this remains bounded by the cusp expansion of . It tends to zero if is a cusp form. Moreover is invariant under : for , and the right-action rule applies. Finite index gives a translation period for , so boundedness is a removable singularity at zero in that periodic parameter. This proves holomorphy at infinity. For every other cusp, apply the same argument to the rational matrix , with . Thus all cusp conditions hold, and
For the character twist by rational translations of a cusp form, put and . For , direct conjugation givesIndeed and . Every is therefore -invariant and vanishes at all its cusps by the preceding rational-translate argument. Their finite weighted sum is a cusp form, for every Dirichlet character:
There is, however, a missing primitivity hypothesis in the printed final expansion claim. The exact Fourier expansion of a modular form is alwaysValues of a Dirichlet character on units have modulus one, so . For unit , substitution gives , where is the Gauss sum of a Dirichlet character. For nonunit , this vanishing formula requires a primitive Dirichlet character.
Here is its proof in that case. Choose a prime . Primitivity supplies a unit with : otherwise the character would factor through the surjective reduction to units modulo . Surjectivity follows by lifting a unit and, if needed, adjusting the lift to avoid the additional prime , using the Chinese remainder theorem. Multiplication by fixes because , but multiplies the character factor by a nontrivial constant. Hence . The finite Fourier transform of a primitive Dirichlet character now gives the corrected formulaThe constant is nonzero: finite exponential orthogonality gives , whereas the proved formula makes this . Thus .
For a concrete counterexample to the printed unrestricted claim, take , the principal Dirichlet character, and . The translation sum is , whose coefficient is . Any constant multiple of the proposed odd-index-only series has coefficient zero. Thus the general modularity conclusion is proved, while the claimed simplification is false without the stated extra hypothesis.
Prime-character sum near one 2026-10-05
For real , the logarithm defined by the Euler product of a Dirichlet L-function differs from by a quantity of absolute value at most . If , a local holomorphic logarithm differs from this continuous logarithm by one fixed multiple of on a short real interval, so stays bounded as . For the principal Dirichlet character, the pole of the Riemann zeta function instead gives . Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters then makes the sum over any reduced residue class diverge, proving infinitude of its primes.
Principal Dirichlet character 2026-10-05
The principal Dirichlet character modulo is one on integers coprime to and zero on all other integers. Its Dirichlet L-function is , so it has a simple pole at one. For it is induced from the character of modulus one and is not a primitive Dirichlet character.