Newman's conjecture, zeros of the L-functions, function fields

De Bruijn and Newman introduced a deformation of the completed Riemann zeta function $\zeta$, and proved there is a real constant $\Lambda$ which encodes the movement of the nontrivial zeros of $\zeta$ under the deformation. The Riemann hypothesis is equivalent to the assertion that $\Lambda\leq 0$. Newman, however, conjectured that $\Lambda\geq 0$, remarking, "the new conjecture is a quantitative version of the dictum that the Riemann hypothesis, if true, is only barely so." Andrade, Chang and Miller extended the machinery developed by Newman and Polya to $L$-functions for function fields. In this setting we must consider a modified Newman's conjecture: $\sup_{f\in\mathcal{F}} \Lambda_f \geq 0$, for $\mathcal{F}$ a family of $L$-functions. We extend their results by proving this modified Newman's conjecture for several families of $L$-functions. In contrast with previous work, we are able to exhibit specific $L$-functions for which $\Lambda_D = 0$, and thereby prove a stronger statement: $\max_{L\in\mathcal{F}} \Lambda_L = 0$. Using geometric techniques, we show a certain deformed $L$-function must have a double root, which implies $\Lambda = 0$. For a different family, we construct particular elliptic curves with $p + 1$ points over $\mathbb{F}_p$. By the Weil conjectures, this has either the maximum or minimum possible number of points over $\mathbb{F}_{p^{2n}}$. The fact that #E(\mathbb{F}_{p^{2n}}) attains the bound tells us that the associated $L$-function satisfies $\Lambda = 0$.