Real-rooted P\'olya-like approximations to the Riemann Xi-function

Publication date: 8 December 2014

Abstract: The Riemann

X i (z)

function admits a Fourier transform of a even kernel

P h i (t)

. The latter is related to the derivatives of Jacobi theta function

h e t a (z)

, a modular form of weight

1 / 2

. P'olya noticed that when

t

goes to infinity,

e^{t}

goes to

e^{t} + e^{- t} = 2 c o s h t

. He then approximated the kernel

P h i (t)

by

P h i_{P} (t)

that contained only the leading term and with

e x p t, e x p (9 t / 4)

replaced by

2 c o s h t, 2 c o s (9 t / 4)

. This procedure captured almost all of the contribution from the tail part (i.e.,

t o i n f t y

) of the kernel

P h i (t)

. We realize that when

t

goes to infinity and

0 l e q s l a n t b < 1, c i n R

,

c o s h t + c c o s h (b t)

goes to

c o s h t

. Thus we improve P'olya's approximation by replacing

c o s h (9 t / 4)

with

c o s h (9 t / 4) + b s u m_{k = 0}^{m - 1} b_{k} c o s h (9 k t / (4 m))

and adjusting the parameters

b, b_{k}, m

such that (A) the approximated kernel

P h i_{S} (b, b_{k}, m; t)

goes to

P h i (t)

when

t

goes to infinity;(B)

P h i_{S} (b, b_{k}, m; t)

is identical to

P h i (t)

at

t = 0

; (C) the Fourier transform of

P h i_{S} (b, b_{k}, m; t)

,like in P'olya's case, has only real zeros. Since this procedure also captures almost all of the contribution from the head part (i.e., near

t = 0

) of the kernel

P h i (t)

, we are able to anchor both ends of the kernel

P h i (t)

.

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