An elliptic curve test of the \(L\)-functions ratios conjecture (Q531849)

The goal of the paper under review is to show agreement between predictions made using the \(L\)-functions Ratios Conjecture and theoretical predictions, which are rigorous. The paper brings new evidence of the validity of the Ratios Conjecture, which is a very active topic of research [\textit{J. B. Conrey} and \textit{N. C. Snaith}, ``Applications of the \(L\)-functions ratios conjectures'', Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 94, No. 3, 594--646 (2007; Zbl 1183.11050),``Triple correlation of the Riemann zeros'', J. Théor. Nombres Bordx. 20, No. 1, 61--106 (2008; Zbl 1208.11103)]; [\textit{D. Fiorilli} and \textit{S. J. Miller}, ``Low-lying zeros of Dirichlet \(L\)-functions'', \url{arXiv:1111.3896}]; [\textit{J. Goes} et al., ``A unitary test of the ratios conjecture'', J. Number Theory 130, No. 10, 2238--2258 (2010; Zbl 1276.11141)]; [{D. K. Huynh, J. P. Keating} and \textit{N. C. Snaith}, ``Lower order terms for the one-level density of elliptic curve \(L\)-functions'', J. Number Theory 129, No. 12, 2883--2902 (2009; Zbl 1205.11077)]; [\textit{S. J. Miller}, ``A symplectic test of the \(L\)-Functions Ratios Conjecture'', Int. Math. Res. Not. 2008, Article ID rnm146, 36 p. (2008; Zbl 1225.11104), ``An orthogonal test of the \(L\)-Functions Ratios Conjecture'', Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 99, No. 2, 484--520 (2009; Zbl 1170.11027)]; [\textit{S. J. Miller} and \textit{D. Montague}, ``An orthogonal test of the \(L\)-functions Ratios Conjecture, II'', Acta Arith. 146, No. 1, 53--90 (2011; Zbl 1233.11054)]. The Ratios Conjecture was formulated by \textit{B. Conrey, D.W. Farmer} and \textit{M. R. Zirnbauer} [``Autocorrelation of ratios of \(L\)-functions'', Commun. Number Theory Phys. 2, No. 3, 593--636 (2008; Zbl 1178.11056)] in an attempt to understand the arithmetic arising in the leading term of the moment calculations of \(L\)-functions. While not being the only way to tackle arithmetic statistics questions, it has the advantage of being both incredibly versatile and precise. Indeed, while originally intended for studying moments of \(L\)-functions, the conjecture can also be used to make predictions for many zero statistics such as low-lying zeros, \(n\)-level correlation, mollified moments and moments of \(|\zeta'(\rho)|\) or \(|\zeta(\rho+a)|\) (see Zbl 1183.11050). Moreover, it is believed that in most cases its predictions are accurate up to square-root cancellation. The present paper focuses on the family of quadratic twists of a fixed rational ellliptic curve \(E\), that is the authors are interested in the statistics of zeros of \(L(E_d,s)\) with \(d\) varying over the fundamental discriminants in a certain range. Here, if \(E\) is given in Weierstrass form \(E:y^2 = x^3 + ax+b\), then \(E_d\) is given by \( E_d : dy^2 = x^3 + ax+b\). The advantage of such a family is that it allows the usage of Jutila's bound on quadratic characters, of which the authors give a generalization. The statistic of interest in the current paper is the one-level density, that is the study of low-lying zeros of the \(L\)-functions in the above family. More precisely, the authors find an estimate for the quantity \[ \frac 1{|\mathcal F(X)|}\sum_{d \in \mathcal F(X)} \sum_{\gamma_d : L(E_d,\frac 12+i\gamma_d)=0} g\left( \frac{\gamma_d L}{\pi}\right), \] where \(\mathcal F(X):= \{ 0<d\leq X : d \text{ even fundamental discriminant with } \chi_d(-M)\omega_E=1\}\), \(\omega_E\) is the sign of the functional equation of \(L(E,s)\), \(M\) is the conductor of \(E\), \(L:=\log\left( \frac{\sqrt M X}{2\pi}\right)\) and \(g\) is an even Schwartz function whose Fourier transform is compactly supported in \((-1,1)\). While being too lengthy to reproduce here, the estimate consists of a main term, which corresponds to the Katz-Sarnak prediction (one has to extract an extra term from the first integral), as well as lower-order terms which explain finer properties of the quantity under study. The authors succeed in saving a power of \(X\) in the error term, a power which depends on the support of \(\hat g\). This estimate is then shown under GRH to agree with the Ratios Conjecture prediction, which the authors compute explicitly. They also show that the Rations Conjecture predicts square root cancellation in the main estimate, whatever the (finite) support of \(\hat g\) is. The determination of lower-order terms in this paper is quite important in light of the subsequent work of Dueñez and others [\textit{E. Dueñez, D. K. Huynh, J. P. Keating, S. J. Miller} and \textit{N. C. Snaith}, ``A random matrix model for elliptic curve \(L\)-functions of finite conductor'', J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 45, 115207, 32p. (2012)], which exploit this knowledge to explain a repulsion phenomenon discovered by \textit{S. J. Miller} [``Investigations of zeros near the central point of elliptic curve \(L\)-functions'', Exp. Math. 15, No. 3, 257--279 (2006; Zbl 1131.11042)], which is not predicted by the Katz-Sarnak main term.