English

The image of the generalized Dedekind sum

Number Theory 2025-03-14 v1

Abstract

The newform Dedekind sum Sχ1,χ2S_{\chi_1, \chi_2} associated to a pair of primitive Dirichlet characters χ1\chi_1, χ2\chi_2 of respective conductors q1q_1, q2q_2, is a group homomorphism from Γ1(q1q2)\Gamma_1(q_1 q_2) into the number field Fχ1,χ2F_{\chi_1, \chi_2} generated by the values of the characters. It is a basic question to identify the image of this map, which is known to be a lattice Lχ1,χ2L_{\chi_1, \chi_2} in Fχ1,χ2F_{\chi_1, \chi_2}. It has recently been conjectured that when χ1\chi_1 and χ2\chi_2 are quadratic, then Lχ1,χ2=2Z L_{\chi_1, \chi_2} = 2 \mathbb{Z}. In this paper, we make some progress towards this conjecture by exhibiting an explicit lattice in which Lχ1,χ2L_{\chi_1, \chi_2} is contained; in particular, when the characters are quadratic, the qiq_i are coprime, odd, and sufficiently large, then Lχ1,χ2ZL_{\chi_1, \chi_2} \subseteq \mathbb{Z}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.09741,
  title  = {The image of the generalized Dedekind sum},
  author = {Evelyne S. Knight and Carlos Alexov Matos and Amira Sefidi and Matthew P. Young},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.09741},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

9 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:18:07.452Z