| Description |
An L-function is a function of one complex variable that is attached to some interesting arithmeetic or geometric data. The values of such an L-function, at interesting points, give structural information about the data to which it is attached. This talk will be an introduction, via examples, to the subject of special values of L-functions. I will begin by recalling some classical formulae which one usually encounters in an advanced course in Calculus. These formulae, when recast in modern language, are the prototypes of special values of L-functions. Starting at an elementary level, I will build up toward classical results of Manin and Shimura on the L-functions of modular forms or of automorphic forms on GL(2); but I will present the results in a fashion which admits generalizations to higher GL(n).
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