DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS FOR CUBIC THETA FUNCTIONS

Abstract

We show that the cubic theta functions satisfy two distinct coupled systems of nonlinear differential equations. The resulting relations are analogous to Ramanujan's differential equations for Eisenstein series on the full modular group. We deduce the cubic analogs presented here from trigonometric series identities arising in Ramanujan's original paper on Eisenstein series. Several consequences of these differential equations are established, including a short proof of a famous cubic theta function identity derived by J. M. Borwein and P. B. Borwein.