Zeroes of quaternionic modular forms and central $L$-values

J. Number Theory, Vol. 217 (2020), 460-494 Values of quaternionic modular forms are related to twisted central $L$-values via periods and a theorem of Waldspurger. In particular, certain twisted $L$-values must be non-vanishing for forms with no zeroes. Here we study, theoretically and computationally, zeroes of definite quaternionic modular forms of trivial weight. Local sign conditions force certain forms to have trivial zeroes, but we conjecture that almost all forms have no nontrivial zeroes. In particular, almost all forms with appropriate local signs should have no zeroes. We show these conjectures follow from a conjecture on the average number of Galois orbits, and give applications to (non)vanishing of $L$-values.