We study the double character sum $\sum \limits _{\substack {m\leq X,\\m\mathrm {\ odd}}}\sum \limits _{\substack {n\leq Y,\\n\mathrm {\ odd}}}\left (\frac {m}{n}\right )$ and its smoothly weighted counterpart. An asymptotic formula with power saving error term was obtained by Conrey, Farmer, and Soundararajan by applying the Poisson summation formula. The result is interesting because the main term involves a non-smooth function. In this paper, we apply the inverse Mellin transform twice and study the resulting double integral that involves a double Dirichlet series. This method has two advantages—it leads to a better error term, and the surprising main term naturally arises from three residues of the double Dirichlet series.

Subconvexity bounds on the critical line are proved for general Epstein zeta-functions of $k$-ary quadratic forms. This is related to sup-norm bounds for unitary Eisenstein series on $\text{GL}(k)$ associated with the maximal parabolic of type $(k-1,1)$, and the exact sup-norm exponent is determined to be $(k-2)/8$ for $k\geqslant 4$. In particular, if $k$ is odd, this exponent is not in $\frac{1}{4}\mathbb{Z}$, which is relevant in the context of Sarnak’s purity conjecture and shows that it can in general not directly be generalized to Eisenstein series.

We define a multiple Dirichlet series whose group of functional equations is the Weyl group of the affine Kac–Moody root system $\widetilde{A}_{n}$, generalizing the theory of multiple Dirichlet series for finite Weyl groups. The construction is over the rational function field $\mathbb{F}_{q}(t)$, and is based upon four natural axioms from algebraic geometry. We prove that the four axioms yield a unique series with meromorphic continuation to the largest possible domain and the desired infinite group of symmetries.

For two real characters ψ,ψ′ of conductor dividing 8 define where and the subscript 2 denotes the fact that the Euler factor at 2 has been removed. These double Dirichlet series can be extended to possessing a group of functional equations isomorphic to D12. The convexity bound for Z(s,w;ψ,ψ′) is |sw(s+w)|1/4+ε for ℜs=ℜw=1/2. It is proved that Moreover, the following mean square Lindelöf-type bound holds: for any Y1,Y2≥1.

This paper develops an analytic theory of Dirichlet series in several complex variables which possess sufficiently many functional equations. In the first two sections it is shown how straightforward conjectures about the meromorphic continuation and polar divisors of certain such series imply, as a consequence, precise asymptotics (previously conjectured via random matrix theory) for moments of zeta functions and quadratic L-series. As an application of the theory, in a third section, we obtain the current best known error term for mean values of cubes of cent ral values of Dirichlet L-series. The methods utilized to derive this result are the convexity principle for functions of several complex-variables combined with a knowledge of groups of functional equations for certain multiple Dirichlet series.