In Gun and Ramakrishnan [‘On special values of certain Dirichlet L-functions’, Ramanujan J.15 (2008), 275–280], we gave expressions for the special values of certain Dirichlet L-function in terms of finite sums involving Jacobi symbols. In this note we extend our earlier results by giving similar expressions for two more special values of Dirichlet L-functions, namely L(−1,χm) and L(−2,χ−m′), where m,m′ are square-free integers with m≡1 mod 8 and m′≡3 mod 8 and χD is the Kronecker symbol . As a consequence, using the identities of Cohen [‘Sums involving the values at negative integers of L-functions of quadratic characters’, Math. Ann.217 (1975), 271–285], we also express the finite sums with Jacobi symbols in terms of sums involving divisor functions. Finally, we observe that the proof of Theorem 1.2 in Gun and Ramakrishnan (as above) is a direct consequence of Equation (24) in Gun, Manickam and Ramakrishnan [‘A canonical subspace of modular forms of half-integral weight’, Math. Ann.347 (2010), 899–916].

Hidden behind a sums of squares formula are other such formulae not obtainable by restriction. This drastically simplifies the combinatorics involved in the existence problem of sums of squares formulae, and leads to a proof that the product of two sums of 16 squares cannot be rewritten as a sum of 28 squares, if only integer coefficients are permitted. We also construct all [10, 10, 16] formulae.