Currently there are no reasons to doubt the Riemann Hypothesis

David W. Farmer

Published 2022-11-21Version 1

We examine published arguments which suggest that the Riemann Hypothesis may not be true. In each case we provide evidence to explain why the claimed argument does not provide a good reason to doubt the Riemann Hypothesis. The evidence we cite involves a mixture of theorems in analytic number theory, theorems in random matrix theory, and illustrative examples involving the characteristic polynomials of random unitary matrices. Similar evidence is provided for three mistaken notions which appear repeatedly in the literature concerning computations of the zeta-function. A fundamental question which underlies some of the arguments is: what does the graph of the Riemann zeta-function look like in a neighborhood of its largest values? We explore that question in detail and provide a survey of results on the relationship between L-functions and the characteristic polynomials of random matrices. We highlight the key role played by the emergent phenomenon of carrier waves, which arise from fluctuations in the density of zeros.