On Euler-Kronecker constants and the generalized Brauer-Siegel conjecture

Abstract

As a natural generalization of the Euler-Mascheroni constant $\gamma$, Y. Ihara introduced the Euler-Kronecker constant $\gamma_K$ attached to any number field $K$. In this paper, we prove that a certain bound on $\gamma_K$ in a tower of number fields $\mathcal{K}$ implies the generalized Brauer-Siegel conjecture for $\mathcal{K}$ as formulated by Tsfasman and Vlǎduţ. Moreover, we use known bounds on $\gamma_K$ for cyclotomic fields to obtain a finer estimate for the number of zeros of the Dedekind zeta-function $\zeta_K(s)$ in the critical strip.