Chowla–Milnor conjecture on linear independence of Hurwitz zeta values

For s>1s>1 and a>0a>0, let ζ(s,a)=k01(k+a)s\zeta(s,a)=\sum_{k\geq 0}\frac{1}{(k+a)^s} denote the classical Hurwitz zeta function. For integers q>1q>1 and n>2n>2, define

L={ζ(q,mn):1mn, gcd(m,n)=1}.\mathfrak{L}=\left\{\zeta\left(q,\frac{m}{n}\right):1\leq m\leq n,\ \operatorname{gcd}(m,n)=1\right\}.

Chowla–Milnor conjecture. The set L\mathfrak{L} is linearly independent over Q\mathbb{Q}. The conjecture is important because its consequences include conditional irrationality results for ratios of odd zeta values to powers of π\pi, and it also has connections with multiple zeta values. Its general status is not resolved in the supplied text.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Wilson J. Chen and Vincent Nguyen, “A series involving a product of four consecutive harmonic numbers”, arXiv:2507.19502 (2025).

Additional references

3 papers in this index state this conjecture (2022–2025). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:2505.12687, arXiv:2212.00366.

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