Let and denote the two oriented noncontractible cycles of the torus. Their transport operators intersect once, so the mutual braiding phase gives the Wilson-loop algebra of an Abelian Chern--Simons theory
The integer charge vectors are identified modulo local electrons: and have identical braiding with every quasiparticle. The distinct topological charges therefore form the finite quotient group
Choose a ground state that diagonalizes the mutually commuting -cycle operators. Acting with multiplies their eigenvalues by the character . This pairing is nondegenerate on : if the character is trivial for every , then is integral and is the trivial class. Thus the states obtained from inequivalent have distinct loop eigenvalues and are orthogonal. The torus ground-state degeneracy of an Abelian Chern--Simons theory is consequently at least .
The all-ones matrix has eigenvalue along and eigenvalue zero on the -dimensional perpendicular subspace. Hence has eigenvalues , and
Substituting into the Chern--Simons term gives
This matrix is integral and symmetric. It is invertible because
For and ,
Thus every anyon braiding phase is unchanged, and bijectivity of on the charge lattice shows that the full sets coincide. The torus ground-state degeneracy of an Abelian Chern--Simons theory is also invariant: