Analytic torsion, dynamical zeta functions, and the Fried conjecture

We prove the equality of the analytic torsion and the value at zero of a Ruelle dynamical zeta function associated with an acyclic unitarily flat vector bundle on a closed locally symmetric reductive manifold. This solves a conjecture of Fried. This article should be read in conjunction with an earlier paper by Moscovici and Stanton.