A Century of Complex Tauberian Theory

Complex-analytic and related boundary properties of transforms give information on the behavior of pre-images. The transforms may be power series, Dirichlet series or Laplace-type integrals; the pre-images are series (of numbers) or functions. The chief impulse for complex Tauberian theory came from number theory. The first part of the survey emphasizes methods which permit simple derivations of the prime number theorem, associated with the labels LandauWiener-Ikehara and Newman. Other important areas in complex Tauberian theory are associated with the names Fatou-Riesz and Ingham. Recent refinements have been motivated by operator theory and include local H1 and pseudofunction boundary behavior of transforms. Complex information has also led to better remainder estimates in connection with classical Tauberian theorems. Applications include the distribution of zeros and eigenvalues.