arXiv subjects

Chantal David

Publications and source records attributed to Chantal David.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Average analytic rank for the $L$-functions of the elliptic curves $y^2=x^3-dx$

We study the average analytic rank in the family of $L$-functions $L(s, E_d)$ associated with the elliptic curves $E_d : y^2=x^3-dx$, as $d$ varies over fourth-power-free odd integers. Since this is a family of curves with complex multiplication, we have $L(s, E_d)=L(s - \frac12, \xi_d)$, where $\xi_d$ is a Hecke character over $\mathbb{Z}[i]$. Assuming the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis, we compute the one-level density of the low-lying zeros of this family for test functions whose Fourier transform is supported in $(-\frac35, \frac35)$. As a consequence, we obtain the upper bound $\frac{13}{6}$ for the average analytic rank $r(E_d)$ over the family. Under the additional assumption of a conjecture on the distribution of quartic Gauss sums at prime elements (a quartic analogue of Patterson's conjecture for cubic Gauss sums), we extend the admissible support to $(-1, 1)$ and improve the upper bound for the average analytic rank to $\frac32$. Both results imply that a positive proportion of twists satisfy $r(E_d) =1$, while the second also yields a positive proportion of twists with $r(E_d)=0$.

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arXiv2025

Nonvanishing of $L$--functions associated to fixed order characters over function fields

We show that a positive proportion of the values $L(1/2,\chi_c)$ are non-zero, where $\chi_c$ is the $\ell^{\text{th}}$ residue symbol for $\ell \geq 3$ over $\mathbb{F}_q[t]$, when averaging over square-free polynomials $c$ in $\mathbb{F}_q[t]$, as $q \equiv 1(\textrm{mod}\,{2\ell})$ is fixed and the degree of $c$ goes to infinity. In the case of $\ell=3$, we show that at least $1/6$ of $L(1/2,\chi_c)\neq 0$, while for $\ell>3$, the proportion depends on the order of the character. This improves a previous result of Ellenberg, Li, and Shusterman showing that there are infinitely many $\chi$ of (prime) order $\ell$ such that $L(1/2, \chi) \neq 0$ (with completely different techniques). Our result is achieved by computing the one-level density of zeros in the family of $L$--functions and surpassing the $(-1,1)$ barrier for the support of the Fourier transform of the test function, necessary to obtain a positive proportion of non-vanishing result. Using similar techniques, we also prove a result towards the equidistribution of the angles of the order $\ell$ shifted Gauss sums when summing over prime arguments, a result which may be of independent interest.

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arXiv2024

Non-vanishing for cubic Hecke $L$-functions

Let $\omega$ be a primitive cubic root of unity. We study the non-vanishing problem for the family of Hecke $L$-functions associated to primitive cubic characters defined over the Eisenstein quadratic number field $\mathbb{Q}(\omega)$. We prove unconditionally that a positive proportion of Hecke $L$-functions associated to the cubic residue symbols $\chi_q$ with $q \in \mathbb{Z}[\omega]$ squarefree and $q \equiv 1 \pmod{9}$ do not vanish at the central point. Our proof goes through the method of first and second mollified moments. The principal new contribution of this paper is the asymptotic evaluation of the mollified second moment with power saving error term. No asymptotic formula for the mollified second moment of a cubic family was known (even over function fields) prior to the writing of this paper. Our new approach makes crucial use of Patterson's evaluation of the Fourier coefficients of the cubic metaplectic theta function, Heath-Brown's cubic large sieve, and a Lindel\"{o}f-on-average upper bound for the second moment of cubic Dirichlet series that we establish. The significance of our result is that the (unitary) family considered does not satisfy a perfectly orthogonal large sieve bound. This is quite unlike other families of Dirichlet $L$-functions in the literature for which unconditional results are known: the symplectic family of quadratic characters and the unitary family of all Dirichlet characters $\chi \pmod{q}$. Consequently, our proof has fundamentally different features from the corresponding works of Soundararajan and of Iwaniec and Sarnak.

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arXiv2024

One-level densities in families of Gr\"ossencharakters associated to CM elliptic curves

We study the low-lying zeros of a family of $L$-functions attached to the CM elliptic curve $E_d \;:\; y^2 = x^3 - dx$, for each odd and square-free integer $d$. Specifically, upon writing the $L$-function of $E_d$ as $L(s-\frac12, \xi_d)$ for the appropriate Gr\"ossencharakter $\xi_d$ of conductor $\mathfrak{f}_d$, we consider the collection $\mathcal{F}_d$ of $L$-functions attached to $\xi_{d,k}$, $k \geq 1$, where for each integer $k$, $\xi_{d, k}$ denotes the primitive character inducing $\xi_d^k$. We observe that $25\%$ of the $L$-functions in $\mathcal{F}_d$ have negative root number. $\mathcal{F}_d$ is thus not one of the essentially homogeneous families of the Universality Conjecture of Sarnak, Shin and Templier, with unitary, symplectic or orthogonal (odd or even) symmetry type. By computing the one-level density in the family of $L$-functions in $\mathcal{F}_{d}$ with conductor at most $K^2 \mathrm N (\mathfrak{f}_d)$, we find that $\mathcal{F}_d$ naturally decomposes into subfamilies: more specifically, a collection of symplectic ($L(s, \xi_{d,k})$ for $k \equiv \alpha \bmod 8$, $\alpha$ even) and orthogonal ($L(s, \xi_{d,k})$ for $k \equiv \alpha \bmod 8$, $\alpha$ odd) subfamilies. For each such subfamily, we moreover compute explicit lower order terms in decreasing powers of $\log (K^2 \mathrm N(\mathfrak{f}_d))$.

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arXiv2023

Asymmetric Distribution of Extreme Values of Cubic $L$-functions at $s=1$

We investigate the distribution of values of cubic Dirichlet $L$-functions at $s=1$. Following ideas of Granville and Soundararajan for quadratic $L$-functions, we model the distribution of $L(1,\chi)$ by the distribution of random Euler products $L(1,\mathbb{X})$ for certain family of random variables $\mathbb{X}(p)$ attached to each prime. We obtain a description of the proportion of $|L(1,\chi)|$ that are larger or that are smaller than a given bound, and yield more light into the Littlewood bounds. Unlike the quadratic case, there is an asymmetry between lower and upper bounds for the cubic case, and small values are less probable than large values.

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arXiv2023

Quartic Gauss sums over primes and metaplectic theta functions

We improve 1987 estimates of Patterson for sums of quartic Gauss sums over primes. Our Type-I and Type-II estimates feature new ideas, including use of the quadratic large sieve over $\mathbb{Q}(i)$, and Suzuki's evaluation of the Fourier-Whittaker coefficients of quartic theta functions at squares. We also conjecture asymptotics for certain moments of quartic Gauss sums over primes.

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arXiv2023

Expected Values of $L$-functions Away from the Central Point

We compute the expected value of Dirichlet $L$-functions defined over $\mathbb{F}_q[T]$ attached to cubic characters evaluated at an arbitrary $s \in (0,1)$. We find a transition term at the point $s=\frac{1}{3}$, reminiscent of the transition at the point $s=\frac{1}{2}$ of the bound for the size of an $L$-function implied by the Lindel\"of hypothesis. We show that at $s=\frac{1}{3}$, the expected value matches corresponding statistics of the group of unitary matrices multiplied by a weight function.

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arXiv2022

On the vanishing of twisted $L$-functions of elliptic curves over rational function fields

We investigate in this paper the vanishing at $s=1$ of the twisted $L$-functions of elliptic curves $E$ defined over the rational function field $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$ (where $\mathbb{F}_q$ is a finite field of $q$ elements and characteristic $\geq 5$) for twists by Dirichlet characters of prime order $\ell \geq 3$, from both a theoretical and numerical point of view. In the case of number fields, it is predicted that such vanishing is a very rare event, and our numerical data seems to indicate that this is also the case over function fields for non-constant curves. For constant curves, we adapt the techniques of Li and Donepudi--Li who proved vanishing at $s=1/2$ for infinitely many Dirichlet $L$-functions over $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$ based on the existence of one, and we can prove that if there is one $χ_0$ such that $L(E, χ_0, 1)=0$, then there are infinitely many. Finally, we provide some examples which show that twisted $L$-functions of constant elliptic curves over $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$ behave differently than the general ones.

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arXiv2021

Lemke Oliver and Soundararajan bias for consecutive sums of two squares

In a surprising recent work, Lemke Oliver and Soundararajan noticed how experimental data exhibits erratic distributions for consecutive pairs of primes in arithmetic progressions, and proposed a heuristic model based on the Hardy--Littlewood conjectures containing a large secondary term, which fits the data very well. In this paper, we study consecutive pairs of sums of squares in arithmetic progressions, and develop a similar heuristic model based on the Hardy--Littlewood conjecture for sums of squares, which also explain the biases in the experimental data. In the process, we prove several results related to averages of the Hardy--Littlewood constant in the context of sums of two squares.

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arXiv2021

One-level density and non-vanishing for cubic $L$-functions over the Eisenstein field

We study the one-level density for families of L-functions associated with cubic Dirichlet characters defined over the Eisenstein field. We show that the family of $L$-functions associated with the cubic residue symbols $χ_n$ with $n$ square-free and congruent to 1 modulo 9 satisfies the Katz-Sarnak conjecture for all test functions whose Fourier transforms are supported in $(-13/11, 13/11)$, under GRH. This is the first result extending the support outside the \emph{trivial range} $(-1, 1)$ for a family of cubic L-functions. This implies that a positive density of the L-functions associated with these characters do not vanish at the central point $s=1/2$. A key ingredient in our proof is a bound on an average of generalized cubic Gauss sums at prime arguments, whose proof is based on the work of Heath-Brown and Patterson.

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arXiv2020

Non-vanishing for cubic $L$--functions

We prove that there is a positive proportion of $L$-functions associated to cubic characters over $\mathbb{F}_q[T]$ that do not vanish at the critical point $s=1/2$. This is achieved by computing the first mollified moment using techniques previously developed by the authors in their work on the first moment of cubic $L$-functions, and by obtaining a sharp upper bound for the second mollified moment, building on work of Lester-Radziwill, which in turn develops further ideas from the work of Soundararajan, Harper, and Radziwill-Soundararajan. We work in the non-Kummer setting when $q \equiv 2\pmod{3}$, but our results could be translated into the Kummer setting when $q\equiv 1\pmod{3}$ as well as into the number field case (assuming the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis). Our positive proportion of non-vanishing is explicit, but extremely small, due to the fact that the implied constant in the upper bound for the mollified second moment is very large.

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arXiv2019

The mean values of cubic L-functions over function fields

We obtain an asymptotic formula for the mean value of L-functions associated to cubic characters over F_q[t]. We solve this problem in the non-Kummer setting when q=2 (mod 3) and in the Kummer case when q=1 (mod 3). The proofs rely on obtaining precise asymptotics for averages of cubic Gauss sums over function fields, which can be studied using the theory of metaplectic Eisenstein series. In the non-Kummer setting we display some explicit cancellation between the main term and the dual term coming from the approximate functional equation of the L-functions.

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arXiv2018

Non-isotrivial elliptic surfaces with non-zero average root number

We consider the problem of finding $1$-parameter families of elliptic curves whose root number does not average to zero as the parameter varies in $\mathbb{Z}$. We classify all such families when the degree of the coefficients (in the parameter $t$) is less than or equal to $2$ and we compute the rank over $\mathbb{Q}(t)$ of all these families. Also, we compute explicitly the average of the root numbers for some of these families highlighting some special cases. Finally, we prove some results on the possible values average root numbers can take, showing for example that all rational number in $[-1,1]$ are average root numbers for some $1$-parameter family.

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arXiv2016

Traces, high powers and one level density for families of curves over finite fields

The zeta function of a curve $C$ over a finite field may be expressed in terms of the characteristic polynomial of a unitary matrix $\Theta_C$. We develop and present a new technique to compute the expected value of $\mathrm{Tr}(\Theta_C^n)$ for various moduli spaces of curves of genus $g$ over a fixed finite field in the limit as $g$ is large, generalizing and extending the work of Rudnick and Chinis. This is achieved by using function field zeta functions, explicit formulae, and the densities of prime polynomials with prescribed ramification types at certain places as given by Bucur, David, Feigon, Kaplan, Lal\'in and Wood [BDF$^+$16] and by Zhao. We extend [BDF$^+$16] by describing explicit dependence on the place and give an explicit proof of the Lindel\"{o}f bound for function field Dirichlet $L$-functions $L(1/2 + it, \chi)$. As applications, we compute the one-level density for hyperelliptic curves, cyclic $\ell$-covers, and cubic non-Galois covers.

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arXiv2016

Sums of Euler products and statistics of elliptic curves

We present several results related to statistics for elliptic curves over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_p$ as corollaries of a general theorem about averages of Euler products that we demonstrate. In this general framework, we can reprove known results such as the average Lang-Trotter conjecture, the average Koblitz conjecture, and the vertical Sato-Tate conjecture, even for very short intervals, not accessible by previous methods. We also compute statistics for new questions, such as the problem of amicable pairs and aliquot cycles, first introduced by Silverman and Stange. Our technique is rather flexible and should be easily applicable to a wide range of similar problems. The starting point of our results is a theorem of Gekeler which gives a reinterpretation of Deuring's theorem in terms of an Euler product involving random matrices, thus making a direct connection between the (conjectural) horizontal distributions and the vertical distributions. Our main technical result then shows that, under certain conditions, a weighted average of Euler products is asymptotic to the Euler product of the average factors.

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arXiv2015

Group structures of elliptic curves over finite fields

It is well-known that if $E$ is an elliptic curve over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_p$, then $E(\mathbb{F}_p)\simeq\mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z}/mk\mathbb{Z}$ for some positive integers $m, k$. Let $S(M,K)$ denote the set of pairs $(m,k)$ with $m\le M$ and $k\le K$ such that there exists an elliptic curve over some prime finite field whose group of points is isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z}/mk\mathbb{Z}$. Banks, Pappalardi and Shparlinski recently conjectured that if $K\le (\log M)^{2-ε}$, then a density zero proportion of the groups in question actually arise as the group of points on some elliptic curve over some prime finite field. On the other hand, if $K\ge (\log M)^{2+ε}$, they conjectured that a density one proportion of the groups in question arise as the group of points on some elliptic curve over some prime finite field. We prove that the first part of their conjecture holds in the full range $K\le (\log M)^{2-ε}$, and we prove that the second part of their conjecture holds in the limited range $K\ge M^{4+ε}$. In the wider range $K\ge M^2$, we show that a positive density of the groups in question actually occur.

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arXiv2015

The frequency of elliptic curve groups over prime finite fields

Letting $p$ vary over all primes and $E$ vary over all elliptic curves over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_p$, we study the frequency to which a given group $G$ arises as a group of points $E(\mathbb{F}_p)$. It is well-known that the only permissible groups are of the form $G_{m,k}:=\mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z}\times \mathbb{Z}/mk\mathbb{Z}$. Given such a candidate group, we let $M(G_{m,k})$ be the frequency to which the group $G_{m,k}$ arises in this way. Previously, the second and fourth named authors determined an asymptotic formula for $M(G_{m,k})$ assuming a conjecture about primes in short arithmetic progressions. In this paper, we prove several unconditional bounds for $M(G_{m,k})$, pointwise and on average. In particular, we show that $M(G_{m,k})$ is bounded above by a constant multiple of the expected quantity when $m\le k^A$ and that the conjectured asymptotic for $M(G_{m,k})$ holds for almost all groups $G_{m,k}$ when $m\le k^{1/4-ε}$. We also apply our methods to study the frequency to which a given integer $N$ arises as the group order $\#E(\mathbb{F}_p)$.

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arXiv2015

The distribution of $\mathbb{F}_q$-points on cyclic $\ell$-covers of genus $g$

We study fluctuations in the number of points of $\ell$-cyclic covers of the projective line over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ when $q \equiv 1 \mod \ell$ is fixed and the genus tends to infinity. The distribution is given as a sum of $q+1$ i.i.d. random variables. This was settled for hyperelliptic curves by Kurlberg and Rudnick, while statistics were obtained for certain components of the moduli space of $\ell$-cyclic covers by Bucur, David, Feigon and Lalín. In this paper, we obtain statistics for the distribution of the number of points as the covers vary over the full moduli space of $\ell$-cyclic covers of genus $g$. This is achieved by relating $\ell$-covers to cyclic function field extensions, and counting such extensions with prescribed ramification and splitting conditions at a finite number of primes.

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