Non-vanishing of class group L-functions for number fields with a small regulator

Abstract

Let $E/\mathbb {Q}$ be a number field of degree $n$. We show that if $\operatorname {Reg}(E)\ll _n |\!\operatorname{Disc}(E)|^{1/4}$ then the fraction of class group characters for which the Hecke $L$-function does not vanish at the central point is $\gg _{n,\varepsilon } |\!\operatorname{Disc}(E)|^{-1/4-\varepsilon }$. The proof is an interplay between almost equidistribution of Eisenstein periods over the toral packet in $\mathbf {PGL}_n(\mathbb {Z})\backslash \mathbf {PGL}_n(\mathbb {R})$ associated to the maximal order of $E$, and the escape of mass of the torus orbit associated to the trivial ideal class.