Evaluation of Dedekind sums, Eisenstein cocycles, and special values of \(L\)-functions (Q1425562)

The authors define higher-dimensional Dedekind sums that generalize both the classical Dede\-kind sums and Zagier's sums. They derive a reciprocity law and use it to show that the generalized sums can be computed effectively using a generalized continued-fraction algorithm. Applications include a polynomial time algorithm for computing special values of partial zeta-functions associated with totally real number fields. Their techniques are also used to compute special values of the Witten zeta-function.