Asymptotic properties of zeta-functions (Q1281953)

The authors consider Weil systems \(\Omega=\{\omega_1,\dots,\omega_{2g}\}\), which consist of algebraic integers that satisfy the same conditions as reciprocal roots of the zeta function of an algebraic curve over the finite field \({\mathbb{F}}_q\). For each positive integer \(m\), they define \(B_m(\Omega)\) so that \(B_m\) would be the number of points of degree \(m\) if the Weil system in fact came from a curve. A family of Weil systems \(\{\Omega_i\}\) is called asymptotically exact if \(\beta_m=\lim_{g(\Omega_i)\rightarrow \infty} B_m(\Omega_i)/g(\Omega_i)\) exists for each \(m\). This is in analogy to the notion of an asymptotically exact family of curves that was introduced by \textit{M. A. Tsfasman} [Coding theory and algebraic geometry, Proc. Int. Workshop, Luminy/Fr. 1991, Lect. Notes Math. 1518, 178-192 (1992; Zbl 0806.14023)]. While not every Weil system corresponds to a curve, it is an open question whether every sequence \((\beta_1,\beta_2,\dots)\) of nonnegative real numbers that satisfy a certain basic inequality comes from an asymptotically exact family of curves. The authors introduce a limit zeta function for an asymptotically exact family of Weil systems (with all \(\beta_m\geq 0\)), and show the existence of various asymptotic quantities, such as the asymptotic Weil measure, asymptotic class number, and asymptotic number of positive divisors of relative degree \(\mu\). Several open problems are listed in the final section of the paper.