Stark zeros in certain towers of fields (Q1574757)

Let \(\zeta_K(s)\) denote the Dedekind zeta function of a number field \(K\). The author studies zeros \(s=\sigma+it\) of \(\zeta_K(s)\) in regions of the form (*) \(1-\varepsilon\leq\sigma\leq 1\), \(|t|\leq \varepsilon\), where \(\varepsilon\) is small. Assume for a moment that \(K\) has a Galois extension \(L\) and, for each irreducible character \(\chi\neq 1\) of \(G= \text{Gal}(L/K)\), the Artin \(L\)-function \(L(s,\chi)\) is entire. In a previous work [Analytic number theory, Y. Motohashi (ed.), Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 237--308 (1997; Zbl 0988.11018)] the author proved the existence of a positive constant \(c_1\leq 1\) such that \(\zeta_L(s)\) has at most one zero in the region (*) with \(\varepsilon = c_1/d^3\log A\), where \(d\) and \(A\) are positive integers determined by the irreducible characters of \(G\). In the present article the situation is more general: it is assumed that the Galois closure of an extension \(L/K\) is solvable over \(K\). Let \(n=[L:K]\) and let \(d_L\) denote the absolute value of the discriminant of \(L\). Suppose that \(\zeta_L(s)\) has a zero \(\beta\) in (*) for \(\varepsilon=c/\delta(n)\log d_L\), where \(0<c<c_1/2\) and \(\delta(n)\ll n^4\) is a number explicitly determined by \(n\). The author proves that \(\zeta_K(\beta)=0\). Since \(\beta\) is a so-called Stark zero of \(\zeta_L(s)\), it is real and simple. As an application, the author constructs towers of fields \(K\) such that every field has a solvable normal closure over its predecessor and \(\zeta_K(s)\) has a zero-free region \(1-\varepsilon\leq\sigma\leq 1\) with \(\varepsilon\) of a similar form as above. For each such field \(K\), he also finds a lower bound for the residue of \(\zeta_K(s)\) at \(s=1\).