Explicit upper bounds for values at \(s=1\) of Dirichlet \(L\)-series associated with primitive even characters. (Q1421303)

It is known from the author's work [J. Reine Angew. Math. 419, 213--219 (1991; Zbl 0721.11049)] that for any primitive Dirichlet character \(\chi\) of conductor \(q_{\chi} >1\), and for any given finite set of primes \(S\), there exists a computable constant \(\kappa_{S}\) such that \[ \left| \left\{\prod_{p\in S}(1-{\chi(p)\over p})\right\}L(1,\chi)\right| \leq {1\over 2}\left\{\prod_{p\in S}(1-{1\over p})\right\}(\log q_{\chi}+\kappa_{S})+o(1). \] In this paper the author improves upon his former results in the case when \(\chi\) is an even character, showing that \[ \kappa_{S}=2+\gamma -\log4\pi + \omega\log 4 + 2\sum_{p\in S}{\log p\over p-1} \] is acceptable (here \(\omega\) is the number of elements of \(S\) which don't divide \(q_{\chi}\)). Explicit expressions for the \(o(1)\)-term which rapidly tends to \(0\) as \(q_{\chi} \to \infty\) are provided. The proof stems from the use of an integral representation of Dirichlet \(L\)-series involving \(\theta\)-functions. As corollaries the following upper-bounds for \(L(1,\chi)\) are obtained in several cases: \((\log ({q_{\chi}\over 4\pi})+2+\gamma)/2\) in all cases; \((\log ({q_{\chi}\over \pi})+2+\gamma)/4\) if \(q_{\chi}\) is even; \((\log ({4q_{\chi}\over \pi})+2+\gamma)/(2| 2-\chi(2)| )\) if \(q_{\chi}\) is odd; \((\log ({12q_{\chi}\over \pi})+2+\gamma)/8\) if \(\chi(2)=0\) and \(\chi(3)=-1\). The author says that a satisfactory approach in the case of odd primitive Dirichlet characters has not been developed yet. By using Burgess's results it is possible to obtain better asymptotic bounds for \(| L(1,\chi)| \), and the paper also includes the result for a primitive Dirichlet character \(\chi\) of prime conductor \(p\geq 8731\) that \[ | L(1,\chi)| \leq {1\over 4}\log p + \sqrt{c_{1}\log p} + {1\over 2}\log\log p + c_2 + o(1), \] with the constants \(c_1 ,\, c_2\) and the \(o(1)\)-term which tends to \(0\) as \(p\to\infty\) explicitly given. The author remarks that the error terms in such asymptotic bounds are not that small for reasonable values of \(q_{\chi}\), so that such asymptotic bounds are of no practical use in the applications to class number problems for number fields.