Sums of squares from elliptic pfaffians

Abstract

We give a new proof of Milne's formulas for the number of representations of an integer as a sum of 4m^2 and 4m(m+1) squares. The proof is based on explicit evaluation of pfaffians with elliptic function entries, and relates Milne's formulas to Schur Q-polynomials and to correlation functions for continuous dual Hahn polynomials. We also state a new formula for 2m^2 squares.