On a Conjecture of Chowla and Milnor

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, we investigate a conjecture due to S. and P. Chowla and its generalization by Milnor. These are related to the delicate question of non-vanishing of L-functions associated to periodic functions at integers greater than 1. We report on some progress in relation to these conjectures. In a different vein, we link them to a conjecture of Zagier on multiple zeta values and also to linear independence of polylogarithms.