On the Freund-Witten adelic formula for Veneziano amplitudes (Q1803217)

The author discusses the formula (*) \(\prod_{p} {{1-p^{a-1}} \over {1-p^{-a}}} = {{\zeta(a)} \over {\zeta(1-a)}}\) where \(\zeta(a)\) denotes the Riemann \(\zeta\)-function and \(p\) runs through the primes. Several physicists used (*) [e.g., \textit{P. Freund} and \textit{E. Witten}, Adelic string amplitudes, Phys. Lett. B 199, 191-194 (1987), \textit{I. Volovich}, Harmonic analysis and \(p\)-adic strings, Lett. Math. Phys. 16, 61-67 (1988; Zbl 0668.43006), \textit{I. Aref'eva}, \textit{B. Dragović} and \textit{I. Volovich}, On the adelic string amplitudes, Phys. Lett. B 209, 445-450 (1988)]. The infinite product in (*) is, however, divergent for all \(a\). The author gives a meaning to (*) by writing the formula in the form \[ \prod^ P_{p-2} {1\over {1-p^{-a}}} \prod_{p>P} {1\over {1- p^{-a}}}= {{\zeta(a)} \over {\zeta(1-a)}} \prod_{p>P} {1 \over {1- p^{a-1}}} \tag{**} \] and replacing the infinite products by their analytic continuation. The equality (**) is proved by analysis on the adeles. There are several misprints. The annoying ones occur in formulas (9) and (11).