Probabilistic aspects of Jacobi theta functions

Abstract

In this note we deduce well known modular identities for Jacobi theta functions using the spectral representations associated with the real valued Brownian motion taking values on $[-1,+1]$. We consider two cases: (i) reflection at $-1$ and $+1$, (ii) killing at $-1$ and $+1$. It is seen that these two representations give, in a sense, most compact forms of the modular theta-function identities. We study also discrete Gaussian distributions generated by theta functions, and derive, in particular, addition formulas for discrete Gaussian variables.