Let be a connected compact Riemann surface of geometric genus , equivalently a smooth projective curve over , and put . Choose a symplectic basis of with . For a closed differential form , write and . The underlying bilinear identity is
It holds for any two smooth closed one-forms. In particular, the Riemann bilinear relations for holomorphic differential forms are
for and in the inequality. The inequality fixes the orientation and the sign convention.
To prove the identity, cut along the symplectic basis to a fundamental polygon . On , a closed one-form has a primitive . The Stokes theorem gives
Opposite copies of each cut have opposite orientations, while their values of differ by the corresponding period of . Pairing those edges therefore leaves for the th handle. Summing proves the identity. The same calculation can be made with a small disk about the polygon's vertices removed; its extra boundary terms tend to zero, so the vertices cause no additional term.
For holomorphic differential forms , their wedge product of differential forms vanishes: locally both are multiples of . This proves the first relation. If and , then
A nonzero holomorphic differential form is nonzero on an open set, so the integral is strictly positive. Applying the identity to proves the second relation.
These relations first prove that the map taking -periods is injective: if every vanishes, the positive integral just computed would vanish. Since by the Riemann-Roch theorem, it is an isomorphism. Consequently there is a unique basis with . Set . The first relation gives , and the second gives, for any nonzero column ,
Thus the normalized period matrix of a complex torus is symmetric and has positive-definite imaginary part:
The integration map sends a cycle to the functional in . In the normalized basis its image is the period lattice
Indeed, the real-linear map from to is an isomorphism: its imaginary part is , and is invertible. Its image of is therefore discrete and has compact quotient. This proves that
is a well-defined -dimensional complex torus, rather than merely a quotient by an arbitrary subgroup.
The relations also provide its canonical principal polarization of a complex torus. With the convention that a Hermitian form is conjugate-linear in its first argument, put and . Symmetry of gives
In particular is integral and unimodular on , and it is compatible with the complex structure. These are exactly the positivity and integrality conditions for a Riemann form on a complex torus; they make the complex torus a Jacobian variety with a principal polarization of a complex torus. If instead one uses a first-argument-linear Hermitian form, the same alternating form is . Changing the symplectic basis changes the coordinates but not this polarized quotient. For , and the Jacobian variety is a point.
Use the normalization in which a Hodge metric is a Kähler metric whose Kähler form represents the image of an integral cohomology class in real de Rham cohomology. Equivalently, all its periods on integral two-cycles are integers. A convention using only rescales the metric and does not change existence. An invariant metric on a complex torus is one preserved by every translation; its pullback to has constant coefficients.
Let carry a Hodge metric. Average its Kähler form over translations using normalized Haar measure:
This averaging Kähler forms over a complex torus preserves reality, type , closedness and positivity. Indeed, for any nonzero tangent vector, the quantity being averaged in is strictly positive. Every translation is homotopic to the identity, since a path from to supplies such a homotopy. Thus , as is seen either on de Rham cohomology or by integrating over two-cycles. The average is translation invariant by invariance of Haar measure and determines a Kähler metric . Its class is still integral. The reverse implication is immediate. Therefore a Hodge metric exists exactly when an invariant one does.
Here is the Riemann bilinear criterion for a period matrix, with the signs kept explicit. For the period matrix of a complex torus, use real coordinates along the lattice basis, so . An invariant real two-form is
Its period on the coordinate two-torus is ; these tori generate integral second homology. Thus integrality of the class is exactly . Positivity of a Kähler form makes nonsingular. Because the lattice basis is a real basis of , the complex matrix
is invertible: its rows recover the real and imaginary parts of the coordinates. In the coordinates , the matrix of the two-form is , whose inverse is .
The differential form of type (p, q) condition says that the two diagonal blocks of the form matrix vanish. Since the form is nonsingular, this is equivalent to the diagonal blocks of its inverse vanishing. Because is real, these inverse blocks vanish exactly when
Set . Skew-symmetry and reality of give , and the full inverse matrix is
Inverting these blocks identifies the two-form explicitly:
For a vector with complex coordinate column , evaluation yields . Hence this two-form is positive exactly when is a Hermitian positive-definite matrix. This proves both directions: an invariant Hodge metric gives such an integral , and any such produces a constant positive real closed -form of integral periods. In particular,
As a sign check, for and the last matrix is , and the associated form is .
For the specified two-dimensional complex torus, put
The real and imaginary period vectors are independent because , so they do form a full lattice. Suppose a polarization matrix existed. Its inverse is a rational skew-symmetric matrix, and hence has the block expression
The first condition of the Riemann bilinear criterion for a period matrix becomes
Separating real and imaginary parts gives and
The matrices on both sides have rational entries except for the factor . Irrationality of therefore implies and . For a symmetric two-by-two matrix the latter expression is , so . The candidate Hermitian matrix is now
Since , is symmetric and traceless, and is skew-symmetric, and . Thus . A Hermitian positive-definite matrix has strictly positive eigenvalues, hence strictly positive trace. This contradiction proves
A complex torus with period matrix of a complex torus admits a Hodge metric precisely when there is a nonsingular integral skew-symmetric matrix satisfying the displayed conditions. The entries of are the periods of the invariant Kähler form over lattice two-tori. The first condition imposes type , and the second imposes positivity; the factor corresponds to the convention .