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At the simplest level, a modular form can be thought of as a function F from the set of lattices Λ in C to the set of complex numbers which satisfies the following conditions:
When k = 0, condition 2 says that F depends only on the similarity class of the lattice. This is a very important special case, but the only modular forms of weight 0 are the constants. If we eliminate condition 3 and allow the function to have poles, then weight 0 examples exist: they are called modular functions. The situation can be profitably compared to that which arises in the search for functions on the projective space P(V). In that setting, one would ideally like functions F on the vector space V which are polynomial in the coordinates of v≠ 0 in V and satisfy the equation F(cv) = F(v) for all non-zero c. Unfortunately, the only such functions are constants. If we allow denominators (rational functions instead of polynomials), we can let F be the ratio of two homogeneous polynomials of the same degree. Or we can stick with polynomials and loosen the dependence on c, letting F(cv) = ckF(v). The solutions are then the homogeneous polynomials of degree k. On the one hand, these form a finite dimensional vector space for each k, and on the other, if we let k vary, we can find the numerators and denominators for constructing all the rational functions which are really functions on the underlying projective space P(V). One might ask, since the homogeneous polynomials are not really functions on P(V), what are they, geometrically speaking? The algebro-geometric answer is that they are sections of a sheaf (one could also say a line bundle in this case). The situation with modular forms is precisely analogous.
Every lattice Λ in C determines an elliptic curve C/Λ over C; two lattices determine isomorphic elliptic curves if and only if one is obtained from the other by multiplying by some α. Modular functions can be thought of as functions on the moduli space of isomorphism classes of complex elliptic curves. For example, the j-invariantIn mathematics, the j-invariant regarded as a function of a complex variable τ, is a modular function defined on the upper half plane of complex numbers with positive imaginary part. We can express it in terms of Jacobi's theta functions, in which for of an elliptic curve, regarded as a function on the set of all elliptic curves, is modular. Modular forms can also be profitably approached from this geometric direction, as sections of line bundles on the moduli space of elliptic curves.
To convert a modular form F into a function of a single complex variable is easy. Let z = x + iy, where y > 0, and let f(z) = F(<1, z>). (We cannot allow y = 0 because then 1 and z will not generate a lattice, so we restrict attention to the case that y is positive.) Condition 2 on F now becomes the functional equation
for a, b, c, d integers with ad − bc = 1 (the modular group). For example,
Functions which satisfy the modular functional equation for all matrices in a finite index subgroup of SL2(Z) are also counted as modular, usually with a qualifier indicating the group. Thus modular forms of level N satisfy the functional equation for matrices congruent to the identity matrix modulo N (often in fact for a larger group given by (mod N) conditions on the matrix entries.)