Class field theory | Abelian varieties | Elliptic functions
Complex multiplication
In mathematics, complex multiplication (CM) is the theory of elliptic curves E that have an endomorphism ring larger than the integers. Put another way, it contains the theory of elliptic functions with extra symmetries, such as are visible when the period lattice is the Gaussian integer lattice or Eisenstein integer lattice. It has an aspect belonging to the theory of special functions, because such elliptic functions, or abelian functions of several complex variables, are then 'very special' functions satisfying extra identities and taking explicitly calculable special values at particular points. It has also turned out to be a central theme in algebraic number theory, allowing some features of the theory of cyclotomic fields to be carried over to wider areas of application. David Hilbert is said to have remarked that the theory of complex multiplication of elliptic curves was not only the most beautiful part of mathematics but of all science. There is also the higher-dimensional complex multiplication theory of abelian varieties A having enough endomorphisms in a certain precise sense, roughly that the action on the tangent space at the identity element of A is a direct sum of one-dimensional modules. (Wikipedia).
