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A flat torus is the quotient ${\mathbb{R}}^d/\Lambda$, where $\Lambda$ is a full-rank Euclidean lattice, with the Riemannian metric induced from the Euclidean metric. Translation by a lattice vector is a Riemannian isometry, so this metric is well defined and has zero curvature. Its volume is the covolume of $\Lambda$.

The dual lattice is ${\Lambda }^{\vee }=\{w:⟨w,v⟩\in \mathbb{Z}\text{ for all }v\in \Lambda \}$. For $w\in {\Lambda }^{\vee }$, the function $e_w(x)=\exp (2\pi i⟨w,x⟩)$ descends to the flat torus, and direct differentiation givesConversely, write $\Lambda =B{\mathbb{Z}}^d$ and $x=By$. Ordinary Fourier series on ${\mathbb{R}}^d/{\mathbb{Z}}^d$ have frequencies $n\in {\mathbb{Z}}^d$, corresponding to $w=B^{-\mathsf{T}}n\in {\Lambda }^{\vee }$. After normalization they form a complete orthonormal basis in $L^2$, and the Fourier coefficients of a smooth function decay rapidly. Applying the Laplace-Beltrami operator term by term shows that a smooth eigenfunction with eigenvalue $\lambda$ has nonzero coefficients only where $4{\pi }^2|w{|}^2=\lambda$. Thus the spectrum of a flat torus isThe formula counts multiplicity over either the real or complex numbers: the two frequencies $w,-w$ give the real sine and cosine functions.

For the rigidity assertion in dimension two, it suffices to reconstruct a rank-two Euclidean lattice $L={\Lambda }^{\vee }$ from its vector-length multiset. The multiset first determines its covolume $A$. Indeed, a bounded fundamental parallelogram, and comparison of the cells meeting a disk with slightly larger and smaller disks, give the lattice-point asymptotics by fundamental cellsThe spectrum determines $N_L(R)$, including multiplicities, so it determines $A$.

Let $a$ be the smallest nonzero vector length, and choose $v\in L$ with $|v|=a$. This vector is primitive: $v=ku$ with $|k|>1$ would contradict minimality. From the length multiset subtract the two vectors $kv,-kv$ at every positive length $ka$, for $k=1,2,\dots$. The shortest remaining length $b$ is exactly the length of a shortest vector $w\notin \mathbb{Z}v$. This subtraction is legitimate even if several directions have length $a$: it subtracts just two copies, and then $b=a$. It also proves that $b$ is independent of our choice of shortest direction. Replace $w$ by $w-kv$ to arrangeThe replacement stays outside $\mathbb{Z}v$ and cannot be shorter than $b$, so a reduced choice still has length $b$.

The shortest-independent-vector basis lemma says that $v,w$ are a basis of $L$. To prove it, choose coordinates with $v=(a,0)$. Because $v$ is primitive, $L/\mathbb{Z}v\cong \mathbb{Z}$; let $h>0$ be the smallest positive vertical coordinate in $L$. Write $w=(x,mh)$, with $m\ge 1$ after changing its sign. If $m\ge 2$, a vector $u$ of vertical coordinate $h$, reduced horizontally modulo $v$, hasThis contradicts the definition of $b$, since $u\notin \mathbb{Z}v$. Hence $m=1$ and $v,w$ generate $L$.

The Gram matrix of this basis is $\left(\begin{array}{cc}{a}^2& c\\ c& b^2\end{array}\right)$, with $c=v\cdot w$, and its determinant is $A^2$. ThereforeChanging the sign of one basis vector allows $c\ge 0$. The numbers $a,b,A$, all audible from the spectrum, consequently determine the Gram matrix, and hence $L$, up to an orthogonal transformation. Taking dual lattices gives the same conclusion for $\Lambda$. Isospectral flat two-dimensional tori are isometric. The argument uses the special basis property of rank-two Euclidean lattices, so it does not claim higher-dimensional rigidity.

Spectral geometry studies which properties of a Riemannian manifold can be recovered from the spectrum of geometric differential operators, especially the Laplace-Beltrami operator. Explicit spherical harmonics, Fourier series on a flat torus, and isospectral manifolds illustrate three different aspects of the problem.

A class of metrics is spectrally rigid if equality of their specified spectra forces the metrics to be isometric, or, in a deformation version, if continuous isospectral deformations are trivial. The spectrum of a flat torus determines every two-dimensional flat torus up to isometry. The Wolpert generic spectral rigidity theorem is a generic, rather than universal, uniqueness statement.