Quarter period
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In mathematics, the quarter periods
and
are special functions that appear in the theory of elliptic functions.
The quarter periods
and
are given by
and
Note that when
is a real number,
, then both
and
are real numbers. By convention,
is called the real quarter period and
is called the imaginary quarter period. Note that any one of the numbers
, or
uniquely determines the others.
These functions appear in the theory of Jacobian elliptic functions; they are called quarter periods because the elliptic functions
and
are periodic functions with periods
and
.
Note that the quarter periods are essentially the elliptic integral of the first kind, by making the substitution
. In this case, one writes
instead of
, understanding the difference between the two depends notationally on whether
or
is used. This notational difference has spawned a terminology to go with it:
is called the parameter
is called the complementary parameter
is called the elliptic modulus
is called the complementary elliptic modulus, where 
the modular angle, where 
the complementary modular angle. Note that
The elliptic modulus can be expressed in terms of the quarter periods as
and
where ns and dn Jacobian elliptic functions.
The nome
is given by
The complementary nome is given by
The real quarter period can be expressed as a Lambert series involving the nome:
Additional expansions and relations can be found on the page for elliptic integrals.
[edit] References
- Milton Abramowitz and Irene A. Stegun, Handbook of Mathematical Functions, (1964) Dover Publications, New York. ISBN 0486-61272-4. See chapters 16 and 17.









