Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 March 2018
Colmez [Périodes des variétés abéliennes a multiplication complexe, Ann. of Math. (2)138(3) (1993), 625–683; available at http://www.math.jussieu.fr/∼colmez] conjectured a product formula for periods of abelian varieties over number fields with complex multiplication and proved it in some cases. His conjecture is equivalent to a formula for the Faltings height of CM abelian varieties in terms of the logarithmic derivatives at $s=0$ of certain Artin
$L$-functions. In a series of articles we investigate the analog of Colmez’s theory in the arithmetic of function fields. There abelian varieties are replaced by Drinfeld modules and their higher-dimensional generalizations, so-called
$A$-motives. In the present article we prove the product formula for the Carlitz module and we compute the valuations of the periods of a CM
$A$-motive at all finite places in terms of Artin
$L$-series. The latter is achieved by investigating the local shtukas associated with the
$A$-motive.
Both authors acknowledge support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in form of SFB 878.