On formulas for Dedekind sums and the number of lattice points in tetrahedra

Abstract

This paper explores a simple yet powerful relationship between the problem of counting lattice points and the computation of Dedekind sums. We begin by constructing and proving a sharp upper estimate for the number of lattice points in tetrahedra with some irrational coordinates for the vertices. Besides providing a sharper estimate, this upper bound (Theorem 1.1) becomes an equality (i.e. gives the exact number of lattice points) in a tetrahedron where the lengths of the edges divide each other. This equality condition can then be applied to the explicit computation of the classical Dedekind sums, a topic that is the central focus in the second half of our paper. In this half of the paper, we come up with a number of interesting results related to Dedekind sums, based on our upper estimate (Theorem 1.1). Among these findings, Theorem 1.9 and Theorem 1.10 deserve special attention, for they successfully generalize two of Apostol's formulas in [T.M. Apostol, Modular Functions and Dirichlet Series in Number Theory, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1997], and also directly imply the famous Reciprocity Law of Dedekind sums.