Moments of the Derivative of Characteristic Polynomials with an Application to the Riemann Zeta Function

Abstract

We investigate the moments of the derivative, on the unit circle, of characteristic polynomials of random unitary matrices and use this to formulate a conjecture for the moments of the derivative of the Riemann ζ function on the critical line. We do the same for the analogue of Hardy’s Z-function, the characteristic polynomial multiplied by a suitable factor to make it real on the unit circle. Our formulae are expressed in terms of a determinant of a matrix whose entries involve the I-Bessel function and, alternately, by a combinatorial sum.