On a Conjecture of Livingston

Abstract

AbstractIn an attempt to resolve a folklore conjecture of Erdös regarding the non-vanishing at s = 1 of the L-series attached to a periodic arithmetical function with period q and values in {−1, 1}, Livingston conjectured the -linear independence of logarithms of certain algebraic numbers. In this paper, we disprove Livingston’s conjecture for composite q ≥ 4, highlighting that a newapproach is required to settle Erdös conjecture. We also prove that the conjecture is true for prime q ≥ 3, and indicate that more ingredients will be needed to settle Erdös conjecture for prime q.