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Myshkin
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First formulation of two conjectures on L-functions

I'm looking for the original statement of two important conjectures in number theory concerning L-functions. I'm particularly interested in pinning down the year in which they were first formulated:

  • The Dedekin conjecture (that the quotient $\zeta_K(s)/\zeta(s)$ is entire)

The only information I've been able to find is that Dedekind himself proved the conjecture in the case of pure cubic fields in 1873. This definitely gives an upper bound. I'm also curious to know for which extensions $K$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ he expected the conjecture to be true.

  • The Hasse-Weil conjecture (the zeta function of an algebraic variety has a meromorphic continuation to the complex plane and a functional equation)

The problem with this one seems to be that it applies to several different kinds of functions, and both definitions and result came in several stages. I think that the first and most basic definitions is Artin's zeta function of a curve over a finite field. This was generalized to arbitrary algebraic varieties, and also to schemes of finite type over $\mathbb{Z}$. Yet the most common definition is over number fields. There's also the local/global and L/zeta distinction.

In this case I'm just trying to get a feeling of when/where the conjecture was first formulated in some generality.

Myshkin
  • 17.6k
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  • 137