On the mean value of symmetric square L-functions

Abstract

This paper studies the first moment of symmetric-square $L$-functions at the critical point in the weight aspect. Asymptotics with the best known error term $O(k^{-1/2})$ were obtained independently by Fomenko in 2005 and by Sun in 2013. We prove that there is an extra main term of size $k^{-1/2}$ in the asymptotic formula and show that the remainder term decays exponentially in $k$. The twisted first moment was evaluated asymptotically by Ng Ming Ho with the error bounded by $lk^{-1/2+ε}$. We improve the error bound to $l^{5/6+ε}k^{-1/2+ε}$ unconditionally and to $l^{1/2+ε}k^{-1/2}$ under the Lindelöf hypothesis for quadratic Dirichlet $L$-functions.