English

Dirichlet Species and Arithmetic Zeta Functions

Category Theory 2026-01-05 v3 Algebraic Geometry Number Theory

Abstract

Though Joyal's species are known to categorify generating functions in enumerative combinatorics, they also categorify zeta functions in algebraic geometry. The reason is that any scheme XX of finite type over the integers gives a "zeta species" ZXZ_X, and any species FF gives a Dirichlet series F^\widehat{F}, in such a way that Z^X\widehat{Z}_X is the arithmetic zeta function of XX, a well-known Dirichlet series that encodes the number of points of XX over each finite field. Specifically, a ZXZ_X-structure on a finite set is a way of making that set into a semisimple commutative ring, say kk, and then choosing a kk-point of the scheme XX. This is an elaboration of joint work with James Dolan.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.01833,
  title  = {Dirichlet Species and Arithmetic Zeta Functions},
  author = {John C. Baez},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.01833},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

21 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:31:21.713Z