Uniform non-vanishing of prime quadratic twists of standard and symmetric square $L$-functions

Abstract

Let $S_k$ be the space of cusp forms of weight $k$ for ${\rm SL}_2(\mathbb Z)$, with $\dim S_k\geq1$, and let $\chi_p=\left(\frac{\cdot}{p}\right)$ for odd primes $p$. For fixed $s$ with ${\rm Re}(s)>(k+1)/2$, we prove that the proportion of primes $p\leq X$ satisfying $L(h,\chi_p,s)=0$ tends to zero as $X\to\infty$, uniformly over nonzero $h\in S_k$. We also prove an analogous statement for nontrivial linear combinations of twisted symmetric square $L$-values of the normalized Hecke eigenforms when ${\rm Re}(s)>k$. The main ingredient of the proof is a non-concentration theorem for random Euler products under a pairwise local separation condition. As applications, we obtain spanning and density-one basis results in $S_k$ for the kernels associated with twisted standard and symmetric square $L$-functions, with explicit basis criteria in specified right half-planes when $\dim S_k=2$ or $3$. We show that almost every tuple of $\dim S_k$ primes gives a basis of $S_k^{\ast}$ from twisted periods at every noncentral critical index. We also prove a density-one result for rational bases of $S_k$ obtained from traces of Rankin-Cohen brackets of Eisenstein series at prime levels.