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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1969 Mar;62(3):679–686. doi: 10.1073/pnas.62.3.679

TWO KINDS OF THETA CONSTANTS AND PERIOD RELATIONS ON A RIEMANN SURFACE

H M Farkas 1, Harry E Rauch 1,*
PMCID: PMC223651  PMID: 16591737

Abstract

It was recognized in Riemann's work more than one hundred years ago and proved recently by Rauch (cf. Bull. Am. Math. Soc., 71, 1-39 (1965) that the g(g + 1)/2 unnormalized periods of the normal differentials of first kind on a compact Riemann surface S of genus g ≥ 2 with respect to a canonical homology basis are holomorphic functions of 3g - 3 complex variables, “the” moduli, which parametrize the space of Riemann surfaces near S and, hence, that there are (g - 2)(g - 3)/2 holomorphic relations among those periods. Eighty years ago, Schottky exhibited the one relation for g = 4 as the vanishing of an explicit homogeneous polynomial in the Riemann theta constants. Sixty years ago, Schottky and Jung conjectured a result which implies Schottky's earlier one and some generalizations for higher genera.

Here, we formulate Schottky and Jung's conjecture precisely and, on the basis of a recent result of Farkas (these PROCEEDINGS, 62, 320 (1969)), prove it. We then derive Schottky's result (we believe for the first time correctly) and exhibit a typical relation of this kind for g = 5 (we can do this for any genus). We do not prove that our relations imply all relations, but there are some indications that they do.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Farkas H. M. Theta constants, moduli, and compact riemann surfaces. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1969 Feb;62(2):320–325. doi: 10.1073/pnas.62.2.320. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Rauch H. E., Farkas H. M. Relations between two kinds of theta constants on a riemann surface. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1968 Jan;59(1):52–55. doi: 10.1073/pnas.59.1.52. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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