An introduction to p-adic L-functions — Lean blueprint

5. Interpolation at Dirichlet characters🔗

The Kubota–Leopoldt pseudo-measure \zetap was built purely from values of the Riemann zeta function, with Dirichlet characters never entering the construction. Remarkably, \zetap nonetheless interpolates Dirichlet L-values as well. This chapter establishes that interpolation, first for characters of p-power conductor, then for general conductors (where one even obtains a genuine measure \zeta_\eta rather than a pseudo-measure), and finally repackages everything as analytic functions on \Zp via the Mellin transform.

Throughout, p is an odd prime, (\eps_{p^n})_{n} is a compatible system of primitive p^n-th roots of unity in \Qpbar (so \eps_{p^{n+1}}^p = \eps_{p^n}), and L/\Qp is a finite extension large enough to contain the values of the characters under consideration, with ring of integers \cO_L. A Dirichlet character \chi of conductor p^n is viewed, via \Zpx \twoheadrightarrow (\Z/p^n\Z)^\times, as a locally constant character of \Zpx. We write \Am_\mu for the Mahler transform of a measure \mu and recall the standard substitution e^t = T+1 relating power series to functions of a real variable.

  1. 5.1. Characters of p-power conductor
  2. 5.2. Non-trivial tame conductors
  3. 5.3. Analytic functions on Zp via the Mellin transform