Class number zeta function of imaginary quadratic fields

Abstract

We introduce a zeta function counting imaginary quadratic number fields by their class numbers. It is proved that such a function is rational depending only on the eight roots of unity of degrees $1$ and $2$. As a corollary, one gets a lower bound $2p$ for the number of imaginary quadratic fields of the prime class number $p$. Our method is based on the study of periodic points of a dynamical system arising in the representation theory of the Drinfeld modules by the bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space.