Jacobi triple product

In mathematics, the Jacobi triple product is the mathematical identity:

$\prod_{m=1}^\infty \left( 1 - x^{2m}\right) \left( 1 + x^{2m-1} y^2\right) \left( 1 +\frac{x^{2m-1}}{y^2}\right) = \sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty x^{n^2} y^{2n},$

for complex numbers x and y, with |x| < 1 and y ≠ 0.

It was introduced by Jacobi (1829) in his work Fundamenta Nova Theoriae Functionum Ellipticarum.

The Jacobi triple product identity is the Macdonald identity for the affine root system of type A₁, and is the Weyl denominator formula for the corresponding affine Kac–Moody algebra.

Properties

The basis of Jacobi's proof relies on Euler's pentagonal number theorem, which is itself a specific case of the Jacobi Triple Product Identity.

Let $x=q\sqrt q$ and $y^2=-\sqrt{q}$. Then we have

$\phi(q) = \prod_{m=1}^\infty \left(1-q^m \right) = \sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty (-1)^n q^{\frac{3n^2-n}{2}}.\,$

The Jacobi Triple Product also allows the Jacobi theta function to be written as an infinite product as follows:

Let $x=e^{i\pi \tau}$ and $y=e^{i\pi z}.$

Then the Jacobi theta function

$\vartheta(z; \tau) = \sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty e^{\pi {\rm{i}} n^2 \tau + 2 \pi {\rm{i}} n z}$

can be written in the form

$\sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty y^{2n}x^{n^2}.$

Using the Jacobi Triple Product Identity we can then write the theta function as the product

$\vartheta(z; \tau) = \prod_{m=1}^\infty \left( 1 - e^{2m \pi {\rm{i}} \tau}\right) \left[ 1 + e^{(2m-1) \pi {\rm{i}} \tau + 2 \pi {\rm{i}} z}\right] \left[ 1 + e^{(2m-1) \pi {\rm{i}} \tau -2 \pi {\rm{i}} z}\right].$

There are many different notations used to express the Jacobi triple product. It takes on a concise form when expressed in terms of q-Pochhammer symbols:

$\sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty q^{\frac{n(n+1)}{2}}z^n = (q;q)_\infty \; \left(-\frac{1}{z};q\right)_\infty \; (-zq;q)_\infty,$

where $(a;q)_\infty$ is the infinite q-Pochhammer symbol.

It enjoys a particularly elegant form when expressed in terms of the Ramanujan theta function. For $|ab|<1$ it can be written as

$\sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty a^{\frac{n(n+1)}{2}} \; b^{\frac{n(n-1)}{2}} = (-a; ab)_\infty \;(-b; ab)_\infty \;(ab;ab)_\infty.$

Proof

For the analytic case, see Apostol, the first edition of which was published in 1976.

Notes

References

• See chapter 14, theorem 14.6 of Apostol, Tom M. (1976), Introduction to analytic number theory, Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics, New York-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-90163-3, MR 0434929, Zbl 0335.10001
• Peter J. Cameron, Combinatorics: Topics, Techniques, Algorithms, (1994) Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-45761-0
• Jacobi, C. G. J. (1829), Fundamenta nova theoriae functionum ellipticarum (in Latin), Königsberg: Borntraeger, ISBN 978-1-108-05200-9, Reprinted by Cambridge University Press 2012