Subconvexity for a double Dirichlet series and non-vanishing of $L$-functions

Abstract

We study a double Dirichlet series of the form $\sum_{d}L(s,χ_{d}χ)χ'(d)d^{-w}$, where $χ$ and $χ'$ are quadratic Dirichlet characters with prime conductors $N$ and $M$ respectively. A functional equation group isomorphic to the dihedral group of order 6 continues the function meromorphically to $\mathbb{C}^{2}$. A convexity bound at the central point is established to be $(MN)^{3/8+\varepsilon}$ and a subconvexity bound of $(MN(M+N))^{1/6+\varepsilon}$ is proven. The developed theory is used to prove an upper bound for the smallest positive integer $d$ such that $L(1/2,χ_{dN})$ does not vanish, and further applications of subconvexity bounds to this problem are presented.