Complex torus

In mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, a complex torus is a particular kind of complex manifold

Complex manifold

In differential geometry, a complex manifold is a manifold with an atlas of charts to the open unit disk in Cn, such that the transition maps are holomorphic....

 M whose underlying smooth manifold is a torus

Torus

In geometry, a torus is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle...

 in the usual sense (i.e. the cartesian product

Cartesian product

In mathematics, a Cartesian product is a construction to build a new set out of a number of given sets. Each member of the Cartesian product corresponds to the selection of one element each in every one of those sets...

 of some number N circle

Circle

A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane that are a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any of the points and the centre is called the radius....

s). Here N must be the even number 2n, where n is the complex dimension

Complex dimension

In mathematics, complex dimension usually refers to the dimension of a complex manifold M, or complex algebraic variety V. If the complex dimension is d, the real dimension will be 2d...

 of M.

All such complex structures can be obtained as follows: take a lattice

Lattice (group)

In mathematics, especially in geometry and group theory, a lattice in Rn is a discrete subgroup of Rn which spans the real vector space Rn. Every lattice in Rn can be generated from a basis for the vector space by forming all linear combinations with integer coefficients...

 Λ in Cⁿ considered as real vector space; then the quotient group

Quotient group

In mathematics, specifically group theory, a quotient group is a group obtained by identifying together elements of a larger group using an equivalence relation...

Cⁿ/Λ

is a compact

Compact space

In mathematics, specifically general topology and metric topology, a compact space is an abstract mathematical space whose topology has the compactness property, which has many important implications not valid in general spaces...

 complex manifold. All complex tori, up to isomorphism, are obtained in this way. For n = 1 this is the classical period lattice construction of elliptic curve

Elliptic curve

In mathematics, an elliptic curve is a smooth, projective algebraic curve of genus one, on which there is a specified point O. An elliptic curve is in fact an abelian variety — that is, it has a multiplication defined algebraically with respect to which it is a group — and O serves as the identity...

s. For n > 1 Bernhard Riemann

Bernhard Riemann

Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann was an influential German mathematician who made lasting contributions to analysis and differential geometry, some of them enabling the later development of general relativity....

 found necessary and sufficient conditions for a complex torus to be an algebraic variety

Algebraic variety

In mathematics, an algebraic variety is the set of solutions of a system of polynomial equations. Algebraic varieties are one of the central objects of study in algebraic geometry...

; those that are varieties can be embedded into complex projective space

Complex projective space

In mathematics, complex projective space is the projective space with respect to the field of complex numbers. By analogy, whereas the points of a real projective space label the lines through the origin of a real Euclidean space, the points of a complex projective space label the complex lines...

, and are the abelian varieties.

The actual projective embeddings are complicated (see equations defining abelian varieties

Equations defining abelian varieties

In mathematics, the concept of abelian variety is the higher-dimensional generalization of the elliptic curve. The equations defining abelian varieties are a topic of study because every abelian variety is a projective variety...

) when n > 1, and are really coextensive with the theory of theta-functions of several complex variables (with fixed modulus). There is nothing as simple as the cubic curve description for n = 1. Computer algebra can handle cases for small n reasonably well. By Chow's theorem, no complex torus other than the abelian varieties can 'fit' into projective space.