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Concept
Theta function
Summary
In mathematics, theta functions are special functions of several complex variables. They show up in many topics, including Abelian varieties, moduli spaces, quadratic forms, and solitons. As Grassmann algebras, they appear in quantum field theory.
The most common form of theta function is that occurring in the theory of elliptic functions. With respect to one of the complex variables (conventionally called z), a theta function has a property expressing its behavior with respect to the addition of a period of the associated elliptic functions, making it a quasiperiodic function. In the abstract theory this quasiperiodicity comes from the cohomology class of a line bundle on a complex torus, a condition of .
One interpretation of theta functions when dealing with the heat equation is that "a theta function is a special function that describes the evolution of temperature on a segment domain subject to certain boundary conditions".
Throughout this article, should be interpreted as (in order to resolve issues of choice of branch).
There are several closely related functions called Jacobi theta functions, and many different and incompatible systems of notation for them.
One Jacobi theta function (named after Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi) is a function defined for two complex variables z and τ, where z can be any complex number and τ is the half-period ratio, confined to the upper half-plane, which means it has positive imaginary part. It is given by the formula
where q = exp(πiτ) is the nome and η = exp(2πiz). It is a Jacobi form. The restriction ensures that it is an absolutely convergent series. At fixed τ, this is a Fourier series for a 1-periodic entire function of z. Accordingly, the theta function is 1-periodic in z:
By completing the square, it is also τ-quasiperiodic in z, with
Thus, in general,
for any integers a and b.
For any fixed , the function is an entire function on the complex plane, so by Liouville's theorem, it cannot be doubly periodic in unless it is constant, and so the best we could do is to make it periodic in and quasi-periodic in .
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