On the number of subrings of \mathbb{Z}^n of prime power index

Publication date 29 November 2022

Permutations, words, matrices (05A05) Arithmetic functions; related numbers; inversion formulas (11A25) Lattices and convex bodies (number-theoretic aspects) (11H06) Other Dirichlet series and zeta functions (11M41)

Abstract: Let

n

and

k

be positive integers, and

f_{n} (k)

(resp.

g_{n} (k)

) be the number of unital subrings (resp. unital irreducible subrings) of

m a t h b b Z^{n}

of index

k

. The numbers

f_{n} (k)

are coefficients of certain zeta functions of natural interest. The function

k m a p s t o f_{n} (k)

is multiplicative, and the study of the numbers

f_{n} (k)

reduces to computing the values at prime powers

k = p^{e}

. Given a composition

a l p h a = (a l p h a_{1}, d o t s, a l p h a_{n - 1})

of

e

into

n - 1

positive integers, let

g_{a} l p h a (p)

denote the number of irreducible subrings of

m a t h b b Z^{n}

for which the associated upper triangular matrix in Hermite normal form has diagonal

(p^{a l p h a_{1}}, d o t s, p^{a l p h a_{n - 1}}, 1)

. Via combinatorial analysis, the computation of

f_{n} (p^{e})

reduces to the computation of

g_{a} l p h a (p)

for all compositions of

i

into

j

parts, where

i l e q e

and

j l e q n - 1

. We extend results of Liu and Atanasov-Kaplan-Krakoff-Menzel, who explicitly compute

f_{n} (p^{e})

for

e l e q 8

. The case

e = 9

proves to be significantly more involved. We evaluate

f_{n} (e^{9})

explicitly in terms of a polynomial in n and p up to a single term which is conjecturally a polynomial. Our results provide further evidence for a conjecture, which states that for any fixed pair

(n, e)

, the function

p m a p s t o f_{n} (p^{e})

is a polynomial in

p

. A conjecture of Bhargava on the asymptotics for

f_{n} (k)

as a function of

k

motivates the study of the asymptotics for

g_{a} l p h a (p)

for certain infinite families of compositions

a l p h a

, for which we are able to obtain general estimates using techniques from the geometry of numbers.

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