The Selberg trace formula as a Dirichlet series

Abstract

We explore an idea of Conrey and Li of expressing the Selberg trace formula as a Dirichlet series. We describe two applications, including an interpretation of the Selberg eigenvalue conjecture in terms of quadratic twists of certain Dirichlet series, and a formula for an arithmetically weighted sum of the complete symmetric square L-functions associated to cuspidal Maass newforms of squarefree level N>1.