Gaussian theta sum (${\theta }_{\Lambda }(A)={\sum }_{\lambda \in \Lambda }{e}^{-\pi {\lambda }^{T}A\lambda }$)

For a full Euclidean lattice $\Lambda$ and a positive definite real symmetric matrix $A$, the Gaussian theta sum is ${\theta }_{\Lambda }(A)={\sum }_{\lambda \in \Lambda }{e}^{-\pi {\lambda }^{T}A\lambda }$. Its absolute convergence follows from Gaussian decay and the polynomial growth of the number of lattice points in a ball. The Poisson summation formula for a Euclidean lattice gives its anisotropic theta functional equation.

If every eigenvalue of a positive definite symmetric matrix $A$ tends to zero, then the anisotropic theta functional equation and the dominated convergence theorem show that $(\det A{)}^{1/2}{\theta }_{\Lambda }(A)\to \mathrm{covol}(\Lambda {)}^{-1}$. Indeed all eigenvalues of $A^{-1}$ tend to infinity, the zero term of the dual Gaussian theta sum is one, and its remaining terms tend to zero while being dominated by a fixed summable Gaussian. Merely requiring $\det A\to 0$ is insufficient.

Let $C=\sqrt{|D_K|}N(\mathfrak{b})$ and $n=[K:\mathbb{Q}]$. Normalize the Minkowski embedding of a number field to the covolume-one Euclidean lattice ${\Lambda }_{\mathfrak{b}}=C^{-1/n}j(\mathfrak{b})$, using the metric with complex coordinates weighted by $2$. Its theta function isWriting $\Vert y\Vert ={\prod }_v{y}_v^{[K_v:\mathbb{R}]}$ and using the trace dual of a fractional ideal gives $\Theta (y,\mathfrak{b})=\Vert y{\Vert }^{-1/2}\Theta (y^{-1},{\mathfrak{b}}^{\vee })$. Its small-parameter asymptotic of a lattice theta sum has leading coefficient one. For the unscaled ideal lattice, the leading coefficient is instead $C^{-1}$; one must specify the normalization when quoting this limit.