The Poisson summation formula for the Gaussian gives the transformations of the Jacobi theta function
where the square root is the holomorphic branch on . Raising to the th power gives invariance under . If , then
so . Since and generate the theta group, this is the weight- transformation law on .
The defining series converges locally uniformly, so is holomorphic on , and its expansion at infinity has no negative powers of . Applying Poisson summation to the shifted Gaussian gives the corresponding nonnegative-power expansion at the remaining cusp. Hence is holomorphic at every cusp and is a modular form of weight and level .
The specialization of the Jacobi triple product to the Jacobi theta function is
Since , one has , so every displayed factor is nonzero. Moreover
The standard convergence criterion for infinite products therefore shows that the product converges to a nonzero value. This proves the nonvanishing of the Jacobi theta function throughout .