On a conjecture of Livingston

Abstract

In an attempt to resolve a folklore conjecture of Erdős regarding the non-vanishing at $s=1$ of the $L$-series attached to a periodic arithmetical function with period $q$ and values in $\{-1,1\}$, Livingston conjectured the $\overline{\mathbb{Q}}$ - linear independence of logarithms of certain algebraic numbers. In this paper, we disprove Livingston's conjecture for composite $q\ge 4$, highlighting that a new approach is required to settles Erdős's conjecture. We also prove that the conjecture is true for prime $q\ge 3$, and indicate that more ingredients are needed to settle Erdős's conjecture for prime $q$.