I've been learning about Dedekind zeta functions and some basic L-functions in my introductory algebraic number theory class, and I've been wondering why some functions are called L-functions and others are called zeta functions. I know that the zeta function is a product of L-functions, so it seems like an L-function is somehow a component of a zeta function (at least in the case of Artin L-functions, they correspond to specific representations). Is this the idea behind the distinction between "zeta function" and "L-function"? How do things generalize to other kinds of zeta- and L-functions?



What is the difference between a zeta function and an L-function?
Let me say first that a Dedekind zeta function is *always* a product of Artin L-functions. It is the structure of the Galois closure which is relevant here. Let me give a nice example which is indicative of the general case. Let $p(x) \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ be an irreducible cubic, and let $\alpha$ be a root of $p$. Then $K=\mathbb{Q}(\alpha)$ has trivial automorphism group, and its Galois closure (say $L/\mathbb{Q}$) is an S3-extension. The group S3 has three irreducible representations: the trivial representation, the "sign representation" $\chi$ which is also one-dimensional, and an irreducible two-dimensional representation which we will call $\rho$. Then we have the relations $\zeta\_K(s)=\zeta\_{\mathbb{Q}}(s)L(s,\rho)$ and $\zeta\_L(s)=\zeta\_{\mathbb{Q}}(s)L(s,\chi)L(s,\rho)^2$. The proofs of these facts are part of the formalism of Artin L-functions.


Generally, the distinction is really a matter of history. Certain objects were named zeta functions - Hasse-Weil, Dedekind - while Dirichlet chose the letter "L" for the functions he made out of characters. However, one feature is that "zeta" functions tend to have poles, and they often "factor" into L-functions. These vagaries are made more precise in various places, for example Iwaniec-Kowalski Ch. 5 and some survey articles on the "Selberg class" of Dirichlet series.


