Properties of Weierstrass's elliptic function.

137 Views Asked by At

In section 6.2 of An introduction to Riemann Surfaces, Algebraic Curves and Moduli Spaces by M. Schlichenmaier, the author wants to embed the torus $T = \mathbb{C}/L$ (for a conventional integer lattice $L = \{m + n z: m,n\in\mathbb{N},z\in\mathbb{C}\}$) in the complex projective space $\mathbb{P}^2$. To do so he introduces the map

$$\Psi:T\to\mathbb{P}^2:z\mapsto\begin{cases} (\wp(z):\wp'(z): 1), & z \neq 0 \\ (0:1:0), & z = 0\end{cases}$$

where $\wp$ stands for Weierstrass elliptic function. Most of the reasoning seems to me quite straight forward, but I fail catastrophically too understand two notions employed to prove the injectivity of $\Psi$. I cite the problematic passages.

$\wp$ is a [meromorphic] function on the torus, thus it takes every value of $\mathbb{P}^1$ equally often (calculated with multiplicity).

Why? The image of a non-constant meromorphic function over $\mathbb{C}$ is dense in $\mathbb{C}$, but how can we get from here to the conclusion that $\wp:T\to\mathbb{P}^1$ is surjective? And not only that, but moreover he says it takes every such value equally often! Does this really mean that $\exists n\in \mathbb{N}\; \forall z\in\mathbb{P}^1\;\exists \{z_1,...,z_n\}\subseteq\mathbb{N}:\;\;\wp(z_i) = z\; \forall i\in [\![1,n]\!]$? This is something I am completely unable to understand or prove. Then he continues:

It has a pole of order $2$ at $0\in T$ and nowhere else. Hence every value occurs two times.

I presume the reasoning behind this assertion (which follows right after the one cited before it) is very closely related to the preceding one, and I am equally unable to prove it myself.

I would really appreciate any help. Thank you in advance.


(Solution candidate promoted to answer, see below).

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On BEST ANSWER

Let $\bar{z} = \pi(z)$ for the canonical projection $\pi: \mathbb{C}\to T$. For any $a\in\mathbb{C}$ define

$$f_a:\mathbb{C}\to\mathbb{C}:z\mapsto \frac{1}{\wp(\bar{z}) - a}$$

By definition of $\wp$ we have that $f$ is doubly periodic and not constant. If $f$ doesn't have a pole, then $f$ is bounded and entire, hence constant, which is a contradiction.

Consider now a contour $C$ following the boundary of a parallelogram defined by the lattice $L$, but displaced as to include both the point $a$ and the vertex in the lattice closest to $a$. Since $\wp'$ has the same double periodicity as $\wp$, by the argument principle we calculate

$$ Z - P = \frac{1}{2i \pi}\oint_C \frac{\wp'(\bar{z})}{\wp({\bar{z}})-a} dz = 0$$

due to the periodicity of the integrand over the lattice. Now $z\mapsto\wp(\bar{z}) - a$ has one single pole of order $2$ inside the contour, and consequently the number of zeros (counted with multiplicity) of $f(z)^{-1}$ is $2$. Because this is valid for all $a\in\mathbb{C}$, the conclusion follows: $\wp:T\to\mathbb{C}$ is surjective and the preimage of any complex number has exactly two elements (counted with multiplicity).

In fact, because $\wp$ is even, the preimage of any $a\in\mathbb{C}$ is of the form $\wp^{-1}(\{a\}) = \{z_a,-z_a\}$.