Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 26 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a period lattice , define the Weierstrass elliptic function byThe summands on a compact set away from the lattice are , and that lattice sum converges. Thus the series and its termwise derivative converge normally. The function is even, and is odd and periodic by reindexing its absolutely convergent series. Hence is constant; evaluation at and evenness make this constant zero for each basis period. The only poles of wp are double lattice poles, with principal part .
Let for the convergent weights used here. Expanding around zero givesThereforePut and . The elliptic function has a removable singularity at zero and hence at every lattice point. It is entire and periodic, thus bounded on the plane and constant by the Liouville theorem. Its zero constant term makes that constant zero. This proves the Weierstrass elliptic differential equationThe three classes , with , are the three distinct nonzero two-torsion classes. Oddness and periodicity give , so they are zeros of the derivative. Their half-period values of the Weierstrass elliptic function are therefore roots of .
They are distinct. If with , the elliptic function would have a zero of multiplicity at least two at each of those distinct point classes, since its derivative vanishes there. It has only one pole on the torus, of order two. The argument principle on a fundamental cell equates its total zero and pole orders, contradicting at least four zeros. Thus are distinct, and the cubic factors asFor the monic cubic , the polynomial discriminant is . Hence the nonvanishing discriminant of a complex lattice isHere is the lattice discriminant, not the normalized q-series of Question 1. For , the normalizations give and , so .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 33 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For the period lattice , define the Weierstrass elliptic function byOn a compact set away from , the summand is uniformly for sufficiently large . The permitted lattice convergence estimate therefore gives Normal convergence of the Weierstrass elliptic-function series. Consequently is a meromorphic function, with a double pole of principal part at each lattice point and no other poles. Termwise differentiation gives the normally and absolutely convergent seriesPairing with shows that is even and is odd. Reindexing the absolutely convergent derivative series gives for every . Thus is constant, with removable singularities at the lattice points. For either basis period , evaluate at : evenness makes this constant zero. These two periods imply all periods in . Hence is a nonconstant elliptic function with period lattice .
To obtain the Laurent coefficients of the Weierstrass elliptic function, take and expandThe expansion and lattice summation can be interchanged uniformly on smaller disks, using the same convergent majorant. The odd powers cancel in pairs. In terms of the lattice Eisenstein sums, the answer isOnly the absolutely convergent lattice Eisenstein sums of weights at least four occur here; no conditionally defined is needed.
Put and . The Laurent series just found givesTherefore has no pole at zero, and its value there is zero. By periodicity it has no poles anywhere. An entire elliptic function is bounded on a closed fundamental parallelogram, hence on the plane, and is constant by Liouville theorem. Since , this proves the Weierstrass elliptic differential equationWe still need to identify the three roots without assuming their distinctness. For a nonconstant elliptic function , the argument principle applied to around a fundamental parallelogram makes the opposite-edge integrals cancel. Thus its zeros and poles, counted with multiplicity, have equal total number. In particular has exactly two zeros in a period cell for every finite .
Let , with . Their classes are the three nonzero two-torsion points of a complex torus. Oddness and periodicity give , so . Thus , where , has a zero of multiplicity at least two at , and the preceding count says its multiplicity is exactly two. If two of the half-period values of the Weierstrass elliptic function were equal, the same function would have at least four zeros, a contradiction. Evaluating the Weierstrass elliptic differential equation at the three half-periods now gives three distinct roots of its cubic. Consequently
For the remaining identity, fix and put , where . The elliptic functionhas possible poles only at modulo . At each, the other factor has an exact double zero, so these poles are removable. Thus is constant, and its limit at zero is . Differentiating the cubic differential equation first where , then extending the resulting identity holomorphically, gives . Since is a root of , we obtainThis proves the Weierstrass half-period translation formula by pole cancellation. Set . Since , evenness gives , and thereforeThe denominator here is nonzero: the only zero of modulo is , whereas is not congruent to . Finally differentiate the Weierstrass half-period translation formula and use to obtain the Weierstrass quarter-period derivative identityThe equality holds wherever these quotients are initially defined, and hence as an identity of meromorphic functions at all remaining points.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 27 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Write and , with the lattice sums taken over nonzero lattice elements. Reindexing the normally convergent series shows that the Weierstrass elliptic function is an even function, and consequently is an odd function. Expanding near zero and cancelling the odd lattice sums gives the Laurent coefficients of the Weierstrass elliptic functionThus the elliptic function has no pole at zero and its constant term is . By periodicity it has no poles anywhere. An entire elliptic function is bounded on a fundamental parallelogram and hence everywhere, so Liouville theorem makes it constant. This proves the Weierstrass elliptic differential equation
We first verify that the cubic is smooth, rather than presupposing it when using its group law. There are three nonzero two-torsion points of a complex torus . Oddness and periodicity imply . Since has a triple pole and no other poles on the torus, value multiplicity of an elliptic function says that these three distinct zeros exhaust its zeros and are simple. Put . Each has a double zero at , since and the zero of is simple. If with , this same function would have at least four zeros counted with multiplicity, although its only pole is double. Therefore the half-period values of the Weierstrass elliptic function are distinct. They are roots of , so all its roots are distinct and the affine curve is a smooth algebraic curve. Its projective closure isIt has the single point at infinity. The derivative with respect to of the defining homogeneous polynomial is nonzero at , proving smoothness there too.
For any finite value , value multiplicity of an elliptic function gives exactly two solutions of , counting multiplicities. Evenness supplies the pair . At a nonzero half-period these coincide and the zero is double; elsewhere they are distinct. An even elliptic function therefore descends to a meromorphic function of on the Riemann sphere. To justify descent at a half-period, put : both and are even in , and is times a nonvanishing even analytic function. The local Laurent series of is consequently meromorphic in the coordinate . At zero the same argument uses . Every meromorphic function on the Riemann sphere is a rational function, proving that even elliptic functions are rational in the Weierstrass function.
For an arbitrary elliptic function , its even part is . Its odd part divided by is an even meromorphic function, hence is with rational. We have therefore proved the elliptic function-field decompositionUniqueness follows by taking even and odd parts. In particular the field of elliptic functions is .
Define and elsewhere on . Periodicity makes the map well defined. Near zero, the projective chart has coordinates and , so the extension is holomorphic. The fiber description above proves injectivity: the two candidates are distinguished by unless they coincide at a half-period. It also proves surjectivity, since every occurs and the two derivatives are the two allowed values, with at a branch value.
Finally, a nonvertical line pulls back to the elliptic function , whose only pole is triple at zero. Its three zeros , counted with intersection multiplicity, satisfy modulo by the zero-pole sum of an elliptic function. On the cubic, reflection corresponds to . The chord-and-tangent group law therefore gives . Vertical lines give inverse pairs; tangencies are included through repeated zeros, and the identity cases follow from the extension at zero. This completes the Weierstrass uniformization by half-period values: is a group isomorphism.
Weierstrass uniformization by half-period values Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
The Weierstrass elliptic function and its derivative give an isomorphism from a one-dimensional complex torus to a smooth plane cubic, with sent to its identity at infinity. The three nonzero two-torsion points of a complex torus are zeros of . Its triple pole implies that these three zeros are simple. If two half-period values of the Weierstrass elliptic function coincided, would have at least four zeros counted with multiplicity, contradicting its double pole. The three cubic roots are therefore distinct, proving smoothness of an algebraic variety. The degree-two map has fibers , distinguished by away from the half-periods, proving bijectivity. A line pulls back to an elliptic function with a triple pole, and the zero-pole sum of an elliptic function says that its three intersections sum to zero on the torus. This gives exactly the chord-and-tangent group law, including repeated intersections interpreted by intersection multiplicity.