The modularity of Siegel’s zeta functions

Abstract

Siegel defined zeta functions associated with indefinite quadratic forms, and proved their analytic properties such as analytic continuations and functional equations. Coefficients of these zeta functions are called measures of representations, and play an important role in the arithmetic theory of quadratic forms. In a 1938 paper, Siegel made a comment to the effect that the modularity of his zeta functions would be proved with the help of a suitable converse theorem. In the present paper, we accomplish Siegel’s original plan by using a Weil-type converse theorem for Maass forms, which has appeared recently. It is also shown that “half” of Siegel’s zeta functions correspond to holomorphic modular forms.