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COMMENTARY

COMMENTARY
New progress on the zeta function: From old
conjectures to a major breakthrough
Enrico Bombieria,1

Early History This paper rigorously shows that random matrix


The zeta function ζðsÞ today is the oldest and most theory is needed to explain the oscillations of the
important tool to study the distribution of prime numbers classic zeta function. In the geometric setting of ar-
and is the simplest example of a whole class of similar ithmetic over fields of characteristic p, this was proved
functions, equally important for understanding the to be the case in a famous work by Katz and Sarnak (3).
deepest problems of number theory. The celebrated At last, we have now another big step in the right di-
Riemann hypothesis is that all complex zeros of ζðsÞ rection and a further vindication of the insight of
have real part equal to 12. The consequences of a mathematical physicists. Undoubtedly, this paper will
proof and even of an unlikely disproof of this hypothesis be of interest to a public going beyond number
would be a giant step forward for understanding prime theorists.
numbers. The behavior of ζðsÞ as a function of the complex
The paper by Griffin et al. (1) makes fundamental variable s is very difficult to study. Mathematicians
progress in the study of the Riemann zeta function by have looked at the Riemann hypothesis from every
introducing a method to study certain classical poly- angle and hundreds of equivalent formulations of it
nomials (the so-called Jensen polynomials) that were have been made. One of the oldest approaches goes
known to play a role for understanding the finer prop- back to Jensen, and his unpublished notes were
erties of the zeta function but had proved to be quite studied, completed, and expanded by Pólya in detail
intractable to study by means of standard methods. in 1927 (4).
What was known before this work was a plausible but The conjecture of Jensen is that the roots of the
inaccessible conjecture, called hyperbolicity, for all polynomials associated to the Taylor expansion of
of them. In this paper the authors introduce a method sð1 − sÞπ −s=2 Γðs=2ÞζðsÞ around the point s = 1=2 are all
to study these polynomials which allows the authors real. This property is called hyperbolicity. If one sets
to establish hyperbolicity for a very large subset s = 12 + ix one can write the Taylor expansion of this
of them. P
n cn x =n! and, by definition, the sum
2n
function as
As an example of the progress made, the random Pd d  h
matrix model for the zeta and allied functions was h=0 ch h x is the Jensen polynomial of degree d.

proposed in a fundamental paper by Keating and Moreover, one may consider the shifted Jensen
Snaith (2), putting aside many previous naive attempts polynomials with ch+n in place of ch. The Jensen cri-
to use a Gaussian law to explain the randomness of terion for the validity of the Riemann hypothesis is that
arithmetical functions. Consider for example tossing all of the Jensen polynomials Jd,n ðxÞ of degree d and
coins with the function λðnÞ which has value +1 or shift n are hyperbolic. In fact, it suffices to prove
−1 according as the integer n has an even or odd hyperbolicity just for n = 0. Older work did this for
number of prime factors (counting multiplicity). The degree up to 5 and shift 0, and modern computa-
old prediction of a Gauss law for the deviation from tional methods verified it for degrees d ≤ 2 · 1017
the mean in this random-looking sequence now is (see ref. 5).
considered to be totally wrong and needs to be Generalized Jensen polynomials show up in vari-
replaced by a much more sophisticated model, con- ous other contexts, particularly in convex optimization,
sistent with the random matrix model of Keating and but only relatively recently have they, and their ex-
Snaith (2). It is again the Gauss law, but in a subtly tension to a theory in several variables, attracted real
defined space of random matrices. attention [see, e.g., Bauschke et al. (6)].

a
School of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540
Author contributions: E.B. wrote the paper.
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Published under the PNAS license.
See companion article on page 11103.
1
Email: [email protected].
Downloaded by guest on June 7, 2021

Published online May 23, 2019.

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1906804116 PNAS | June 4, 2019 | vol. 116 | no. 23 | 11085–11086


The Main Result asymptotically with incredible precision. As a consequence, they
In this relatively short paper, the authors are able to prove the are able to show that the Riemann zeta function in the derivative
desired hyperbolicity for a big chunk of the original Jensen poly- aspect Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE) follows the predicted
nomials, namely for every fixed degree d and all n ≥ NðdÞ. Although random matrix model GUE after an appropriate renormalization.
this remains far away from proving the Riemann hypothesis, it is a This is a rigorously proved result of this type and not just con-
big step forward in making progress along Jensen’s line of thought. jectured or made plausible by numerica evidence.
Most importantly, the method can be applied to other situations, There is no doubt that this paper will inspire further funda-
and the authors give some interesting examples of this. Their idea is mental work in other areas of number theory as well as in math-
that for large shifts n the coefficients an+j can be computed ematical physics.

1 M. Griffin, K. Ono, L. Rolen, D. Zagier, Jensen polynomials for the Riemann zeta function and other sequences. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 116, 11103–11110
(2019).
2 J. P. Keating, N. C. Snaith, Random matrix theory and ζð1=2 + itÞ. Comm. Math. Phys. 214, 57–89 (2000).
3 N. M. Katz, P. Sarnak, Random Matrices, Frobenius Eigenvalues, and Monodromy (American Mathematical Society Colloquium Publications, American
Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 1999), vol. 45.
4 G. Pólya, Über die algebraisch-funktionentheoretischen Untersuchungen von J.L.W.V. Jensen. Kgl. Danske Vid. Sel. Math. Fis. Medd. 7, 3–33 (1927).
5 M. Chasse, Laguerre multiplier sequences and sector properties of entire functions, Complex Var. Elliptic Equ. 58, 875–885 (2011).
6 H. H. Bauschke, O. Güler, A. S. Lewis, H. S. Sendov, Hyperbolic polynomials and convex analysis. Canad. J. Math. 53, 470–488 (2001).
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11086 | www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1906804116 Bombieri

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