The concept of ``character'' in Dirichlet's theorem on primes in an arithmetic progression (Q2249437)

In 1837, \textit{P. G. L. Dirichlet} [``Beweis des Satzes, dass jede unbegrenzte arithmetische Progression, deren erstes Glied und Differenz ganze Zahlen ohne gemeinschaftlichen Factor sind, unendlich viele Primzahlen enthält'', Abhandlungen der königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (1837); see also: Dirichlet's Werke. Herausgegeben auf Veranlassung der Königl. Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften von L. Kronecker. Erster Band. Berlin. G. Reimer (1889; JFM 21.0016.01)] proved that there are infinitely many primes in any arithmetic progression in which the terms do not all share a common factor. In this survey implicit and explicit uses of Dirichlet characters in presentations of Dirichlet's proof in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are presented, with an eye toward understanding some of the pragmatic pressures that shaped the evolution of modern mathematical method, like the concept of ``function''. As the authors say in the introduction, they present in Section 2 their study centering around topics in regard to the development of the concept of ``function'' in the nineteenth century. In the next section contemporary presentations of Dirichlet's proof, and in Section 4 various modes are treated in which these presentations consider characters as objects. In an opposite way, in Section 5 one finds Dirichlet's own presentation of the proof; the notion of character does not figure at all here. The authors say (quotation) ``Section 6 then traces a gradual transition, as characters are transformed from shadelike entities in the original proof in the fully embodied objects we take them today. Section 7 analyzes the forces that shaped the transition, and Section 8 draws some conclusion''. (The authors announce also the publication of a companion paper, entitled: ``Characters and object'', which the reviewer has not seen yet.) By the way, more explicitly, it is mentioned here that in Section 6 later presentations are overviewed by Dirichlet himself, Dedekind, Weber, de La Vallée-Poussin, Hadamard, Kronecker, Landon. The paper under review provides a wealth of information on three interwoven themes: concept of function, Dirichlet theorem on primes in an arithmetic progression, theory of characters and \(L\)-series. As such, anybody interested in developments concerning the topics, from the nineteenth century to our days, should take knowledge of that.