High moments of theta functions and character sums

Abstract: Assuming the Generalised Riemann Hypothesis, we prove a sharp upper bound on moments of shifted Dirichlet $L$-functions. We use this to obtain conditional upper bounds on high moments of theta functions. Both of these results strengthen theorems of Munsch, who proved almost sharp upper bounds for these quantities. The main new ingredient of our proof comes from a paper of Harper, who showed the related result $\int_{0}^T |\zeta(1/2+it)|^{2k} \ll_k T(\log T)^{k^2} $ for all $k\geq 0$ under the Riemann Hypothesis. Finally, we obtain a sharp conditional upper bound on high moments of character sums of arbitrary length.