Confused about Dirichlet L-functions and their poles.

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I read : if χ is principal, then the corresponding Dirichlet L-function has a simple pole at $s = 1$.

Probably I need to know what principal is and that will solve my question.

My confusion was this.

Let $\zeta_R(s)$ be the Riemann zeta function with a simple pole at $1$.

Let $\zeta_1(s)$ be the Dirichlet L-function defined as the analytic continuation of

$$ \prod_{p_1} (1+\frac{1}{p_1^s - 1}) $$

where $p_1$ are the primes $ 1$ mod $4$.

Let $\zeta_2(s)$ be the Dirichlet L-function defined as the analytic continuation of

$$ \prod_{p_2} (1+\frac{1}{p_2^s - 1}) $$

where $p_1$ are the primes $ 3$ mod $4$.

Now we have $\zeta_R(s) = (1+\frac{1}{2^s-1}) \zeta_1(s) \zeta_2(s) $

But $\zeta_R(s)$ has a simple pole at $1$ thus if $\zeta_1(s)$ and $\zeta_2(s)$ both have a pole at $1$ then we have a paradox ; because the product of 2 functions with a simple pole at $s=1$ equals a function with a pole of order $2$ at $s=1$.

So what is going on here ?

Did I misunderstood ?

Which one ( $\zeta_1$ or $\zeta_2$ ) is missing a pole at $1$ ?

And where is the location of the pole for the one that has no pole at $1$ ?

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Those aren't quite the Dirichlet $L$-functions you intended, is part of the problem. In general, $$ L(s,\chi)\;=\;\sum_n {\chi(n)\over n^s} \;=\; \prod_p {1\over 1 - {\chi(p)\over p^s}}$$ In fact, it appears that the two Dirichlet series you wrote do blow up as $s\to 1^+$ (by a quantitative form of Dirichlet's theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions). In fact, they cannot have meromorphic continuations, since, as you observe, the combination of their alleged poles at $s=1$ would have to give the simple pole of $\zeta(s)$, which is impossible.

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The principal character is the trivial character, the character that takes on the value 1 at every argument.

I think in your example, you are looking at the two Dirichlet characters on the integers modulo 4. One of these has $\chi(a)=1$ for $a$ odd, the other has $\chi(1)=1$, $\chi(3)=-1$ (both characters have $\chi(a)=0$ for $a$ even). The first one is the principal character.