On L-functions of modular elliptic curves and certain K3 surfaces

Abstract

Inspired by Lehmer’s conjecture on the non-vanishing of the Ramanujan $$\tau $$ τ -function, one may ask whether an odd integer $$\alpha $$ α can be equal to $$\tau (n)$$ τ ( n ) or any coefficient of a newform f(z). Balakrishnan, Craig, Ono and Tsai used the theory of Lucas sequences and Diophantine analysis to characterize non-admissible values of newforms of even weight $$k\ge 4$$ k ≥ 4 . We use these methods for weight 2 and 3 newforms and apply our results to L-functions of modular elliptic curves and certain K3 surfaces with Picard number $$\ge 19$$ ≥ 19 . In particular, for the complete list of weight 3 newforms $$f_\lambda (z)=\sum a_\lambda (n)q^n$$ f λ ( z ) = ∑ a λ ( n ) q n that are $$\eta $$ η -products, and for $$N_\lambda $$ N λ the conductor of some elliptic curve $$E_\lambda $$ E λ , we show that if $$|a_\lambda (n)|<100$$ | a λ ( n ) | < 100 is odd with $$n>1$$ n > 1 and $$(n,2N_\lambda )=1$$ ( n , 2 N λ ) = 1 , then $$\begin{aligned} a_\lambda (n) \in&\{-5,9,\pm 11,25, \pm 41, \pm 43, -45,\pm 47,49, \pm 53,55, \pm 59, \pm 61,\\&\pm 67, -69,\pm 71,\pm 73,75, \pm 79,\pm 81, \pm 83, \pm 89,\pm 93 \pm 97, 99\}. \end{aligned}$$ a λ ( n ) ∈ { - 5 , 9 , ± 11 , 25 , ± 41 , ± 43 , - 45 , ± 47 , 49 , ± 53 , 55 , ± 59 , ± 61 , ± 67 , - 69 , ± 71 , ± 73 , 75 , ± 79 , ± 81 , ± 83 , ± 89 , ± 93 ± 97 , 99 } . Assuming the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis, we can rule out a few more possibilities leaving $$\begin{aligned} a_\lambda (n) \in \{-5,9,\pm 11,25,-45,49,55,-69,75,\pm 81,\pm 93, 99\}. \end{aligned}$$ a λ ( n ) ∈ { - 5 , 9 , ± 11 , 25 , - 45 , 49 , 55 , - 69 , 75 , ± 81 , ± 93 , 99 } .

Even Values of Ramanujan’s Tau-Function

“…Murty et al [14] proved that τ (n) = α for sufficiently large n. Craig and the authors [4,5] proved some effective results concerning potential odd values of τ (n) and, more generally, coefficients of newforms with residually reducible mod 2 Galois representation. Their methods have been carried further in subsequent work by Amir and Hong [2], Dembner and Jain [11], and Hanada and Madhukara [12]. For example, for n > 1, these papers prove that τ (n) / ∈ {±1, ±691} ∪ {± : 3 ≤ < 100 prime}.…”

“…The proof in this case is complete as Lemma 3.1 shows that τ ( p) = ±2 . Case (2). Since 3 ≤ < 100 is prime, (1.3) and Theorem 6 of [6] implies that |τ (n)| = b for all n and b ≥ 1.…”