An Artin L-function over the rationals encodes in a generating function information about how an irreducible monic polynomial over
factors when reduced modulo each prime. For the polynomial
,
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where is a Legendre symbol, which is equivalent to the Euler L-function. The definition over arbitrary polynomials generalizes the above expression.
Knapp, A. W. "Group Representations and Harmonic Analysis, Part II." Not. Amer. Math. Soc. 43, 537-549, 1996.