The Hodge Realization of the Polylogarithm and the Shintani Generating Class for Totally Real Fields

Abstract: In this article, we construct the Hodge realization of the polylogarithm class in the equivariant Deligne-Beilinson cohomology of a certain algebraic torus associated to a totally real field. We then prove that the de Rham realization of this polylogarithm gives the Shintani generating class, a cohomology class generating the values of the Lerch zeta functions of the totally real field at nonpositive integers. Inspired by this result, we give a conjecture concerning the specialization of this polylogarithm class at torsion points, and discuss its relation to the Beilinson conjecture for Hecke characters of totally real fields.