Root number bias for newforms

Abstract

Previously we observed that newforms obey a strict bias towards root number $+1$ in squarefree levels: at least half of the newforms in $S_k(\hat{I}{“}_0(N))$ with root number $+1$ for $N$ squarefree, and it is strictly more than half outside of a few special cases. Subsequently, other authors treated levels which are cubes of squarefree numbers. Here we treat arbitrary levels, and find that if the level is not the square of a squarefree number, this strict bias still holds for any weight. In fact the number of such exceptional levels is finite for fixed weight, and 0 if $k<12$. We also investigate some variants of this question to better understand the exceptional levels.

16 pages; this version corrects a mathematical misprint in the published version