Integrality of the higher Rademacher symbols

Abstract

Rademacher symbols may be defined in terms of Dedekind sums, and give the value at zero of the zeta function associated to a narrow ideal class of a real quadratic field. Duke extended these symbols to give the zeta function values at all negative integers. Here we prove Duke's conjecture that these higher Rademacher symbols are integer valued, making the above zeta value denominators as simple as the corresponding Riemann zeta value denominators. The proof uses detailed properties of Bernoulli numbers, including a generalization of the Kummer congruences.