A twisted generalization of the classical Dedekind sum

Abstract

In this paper, we express three different, yet related, character sums in terms of generalized Bernoulli numbers. Two of these sums are generalizations of sums introduced and studied by Berndt and Arakawa–Ibukiyama–Kaneko in the context of the theory of modular forms. A third sum generalizes a sum already studied by Ramanujan in the context of theta function identities. Our methods are elementary, relying only on basic facts from algebra and number theory.