Dirichlet series associated with polynomials and applications (Q1005560)

Let \(P({\mathbf x})=P(x_1,\ldots,x_k)=\sum_\alpha c_\alpha{\mathbf x}^\alpha\) be a polynomial in \(k\) variables with degree \(\deg_{x_j}P\geq 1\) in each variable \(x_j\) and in which the coefficients indexed by \(\alpha=(\alpha_1\ldots,\alpha_k)\) satisfy \(\text{re\;}c_\alpha>0\) if \(c_\alpha\neq 0\). Set \(\rho(P)=\max_\alpha|\arg c_\alpha|\) and \(d(P)=\max\{\alpha_1+\cdots+\alpha_k:c_\alpha\neq 0\}\). Suppose that \(0\leq\theta<\pi/2\) and \(\rho(P)+d(P)\theta<\pi/2\) and that \(\lambda_r(n)\) are sequences with \(\lambda_r(n)\rightarrow\infty\) as \(n\rightarrow\infty\) and \(|\arg \lambda_r(n)|\leq \theta\) for \(1\leq r\leq k\). Define the Dirichlet series \[ S_{P;{\mathbf Z}}(s)=\sum_{n_1,\ldots,n_k=1}^\infty {a_1(n_1)\cdots a_k(n_k)\over P(\lambda_1(n_1),\ldots,\lambda_k(n_k))^s}, \] where \({\mathbf Z}=(Z_1,\ldots,Z_k)\) and the \(Z_r(s)=\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_r(n)/\lambda_r(n)^s\) are auxiliary Dirichlet series. Denote by \(\sigma_a(D)\) the abscissa of absolute convergence of the Dirichlet series \(D\). \textit{M. Peter} [Acta Arith. 84, No. 3, 245--278 (1998; Zbl 0906.11046)] has shown that if each \(\sigma_a(Z_r)<\infty\) and \(Z_r(s)\) has a meromorphic continuation to the whole complex plane and has only finitely many poles and satisfies a natural growth condition in each vertical strip of finite width, then \(S_{P;{\mathbf Z}}(s)\) can be continued meromorphically to the whole complex plane and has only finitely many poles in each vertical strip of finite width. Peter's method extends to cover the situation where just one of the \(Z_r(s)\) has infinitely many poles in some vertical strip of finite width but is otherwise well-behaved. The authors study examples where 2 of the \(Z_r(s)\) have infinitely many poles in a vertical strip of finite width and find cases where there is no meromorphic continuation beyond the half-plane of absolute convergence. These examples are based on polynomials \(P({\mathbf x})=\sum_{j=1}^l \epsilon_j{\mathbf x}_j^{\alpha_j}\) where \({\mathbf x}_j=(x_{j1},\ldots,x_{jd_j})\) and \({\mathbf x}=({\mathbf x_1},\ldots,{\mathbf x_l})\). The results are applied to estimate \(N_P({\mathbf x})\), the number of lattice points \({\mathbf m}\) with \(|P({\mathbf m})|\leq x\), for this particular class of polynomials, improving on the general result of Peter for this special case.