Evaluating the Mahler measure of linear forms via Kronecker limit formulas on complex projective space

Abstract

In Cogdell et al., \it LMS Lecture Notes Series \bf 459, \rm 393--427 (2020), \rm the authors proved an analogue of Kronecker's limit formula associated to any divisor $\mathcal{D}$ which is smooth in codimension one on any smooth Kähler manifold $X$. In the present article, we apply the aforementioned Kronecker limit formula in the case when $X$ is complex projective space $\CC\PP^n$ for $n\ge 2$ and $\mathcal{D}$ is a hyperplane, meaning the divisor of a linear form $P_D(z)$ for ${z} = (\mathcal{Z}_{j}) \in \CC\PP^n$. Our main result is an explicit evaluation of the Mahler measure of $P_D$ as a convergent series whose each term is given in terms of rational numbers, multinomial coefficients, and the $L^2$-norm of the vector of coefficients of $P_D$.