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 (Selberg 1992), who preferred not to use the word "axiom" that later authors have employed.
Contents
Definition
The formal definition of the class S is the set of all Dirichlet series
absolutely convergent for Re(s) > 1 that satisfy four axioms (or assumptions as Selberg calls them):
Comments on definition
The condition that the real part of μi be non-negative is because there are known L-functions that do not satisfy the Riemann hypothesis when μi is negative. Specifically, there are Maass forms associated with exceptional eigenvalues, for which the Ramanujan–Peterssen conjecture holds, and have a functional equation, but do not satisfy the Riemann hypothesis.
The condition that θ < 1/2 is important, as the θ = 1/2 case includes the Dirichlet eta-function, which violates the Riemann hypothesis.
It is a consequence of 4. that the an are multiplicative and that
Examples
The prototypical example of an element in S is the Riemann zeta function. Another example, is the L-function of the modular discriminant Δ
where
All known examples are automorphic L-functions, and the reciprocals of Fp(s) are polynomials in p−s of bounded degree.
The best results on the structure of the Selberg class are due to Kaczorowski and Perelli, who show that the Dirichlet L-functions (including the Riemann zeta-function) are the only examples with degree less than 2.
Basic properties
As with the Riemann zeta function, an element F of S has trivial zeroes that arise from the poles of the gamma factor γ(s). The other zeroes are referred to as the non-trivial zeroes of F. These will all be located in some strip 1 − A ≤ Re(s) ≤ A. Denoting the number of non-trivial zeroes of F with 0 ≤ Im(s) ≤ T by NF(T), Selberg showed that
Here, dF is called the degree (or dimension) of F. It is given by
If F and G are in the Selberg class, then so is their product and
A function F ≠ 1 in S is called primitive if whenever it is written as F = F1F2, with Fi in S, then F = F1 or F = F2. If dF = 1, then F is primitive. Every function F ≠ 1 of S can be written as a product of primitive functions. Selberg's conjectures, described below, imply that the factorization into primitive functions is unique.
Examples of primitive functions include the Riemann zeta function and Dirichlet L-functions of primitive Dirichlet characters. Assuming conjectures 1 and 2 below, L-functions of irreducible cuspidal automorphic representations that satisfy the Ramanujan conjecture are primitive.
Selberg's conjectures
In (Selberg 1992), Selberg made conjectures concerning the functions in S:
Consequences of the conjectures
Conjectures 1 and 2 imply that if F has a pole of order m at s = 1, then F(s)/ζ(s)m is entire. In particular, they imply Dedekind's conjecture.
M. Ram Murty showed in (Murty 1994) that conjectures 1 and 2 imply the Artin conjecture. In fact, Murty showed that Artin L-functions corresponding to irreducible representations of the Galois group of a solvable extension of the rationals are automorphic as predicted by the Langlands conjectures.
The functions in S also satisfy an analogue of the prime number theorem: F(s) has no zeroes on the line Re(s) = 1. As mentioned above, conjectures 1 and 2 imply the unique factorization of functions in S into primitive functions. Another consequence is that the primitivity of F is equivalent to nF = 1.