The value-distribution of Artin \(L\)-functions associated with cubic fields in conductor aspect (Q6165549)

This is a very interesting paper on the distribution of class numbers of non-Galois cubic extensions of \(\mathbb Q\). Recall that Gauss studied the asymptotic distribution of class numbers of both real and imaginary quadratic number fields and provided explicit conjectures on the number of imaginary quadratic fields with small class number, the most famous being the class number one problem solved by Baker and Stark. The distribution of cubic fields was initiated by Davenport and Heilbronn. Since then, these have been refined into counting cubic fields with local specifications on how primes split; some of the recent main results in this direction are due to M.~Bhargava and his collaborators. In this article, the author presents a careful study of the distribution of class numbers of non-Galois cubic fields using results of Bhargava et al as well as Taniguchi and Thorne. While the methods of random variables play a role in the paper, the outlook is different those arising from the Cohen-Lenstra heuristics. The final result can be viewed as a generalization of Gauss's result to cubic fields. The paper is very well written with a very detailed introduction with explanations interspersed throughout the article to orient the reader.