Let ${\displaystyle g,N\in \mathbb {N} }$  and define

${\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}_{g}=\left\{\tau \in M_{g\times g}(\mathbb {C} )\ {\big |}\ \tau ^{\mathrm {T} }=\tau ,{\textrm {Im}}(\tau ){\text{ positive definite}}\right\},}$ 

the Siegel upper half-space. Define the symplectic group of level ${\displaystyle N}$ , denoted by ${\displaystyle \Gamma _{g}(N),}$  as

${\displaystyle \Gamma _{g}(N)=\left\{\gamma \in GL_{2g}(\mathbb {Z} )\ {\big |}\ \gamma ^{\mathrm {T} }{\begin{pmatrix}0&I_{g}\\-I_{g}&0\end{pmatrix}}\gamma ={\begin{pmatrix}0&I_{g}\\-I_{g}&0\end{pmatrix}},\ \gamma \equiv I_{2g}\mod N\right\},}$ 

where ${\displaystyle I_{g}}$  is the ${\displaystyle g\times g}$  identity matrix. Finally, let

${\displaystyle \rho :{\textrm {GL}}_{g}(\mathbb {C} )\rightarrow {\textrm {GL}}(V)}$ 

be a rational representation, where ${\displaystyle V}$  is a finite-dimensional complex vector space.

Given

${\displaystyle \gamma ={\begin{pmatrix}A&B\\C&D\end{pmatrix}}}$ 

and

${\displaystyle \gamma \in \Gamma _{g}(N),}$ 

define the notation

${\displaystyle (f{\big |}\gamma )(\tau )=(\rho (C\tau +D))^{-1}f(\gamma \tau ).}$ 

Then a holomorphic function

${\displaystyle f:{\mathcal {H}}_{g}\rightarrow V}$ 

is a Siegel modular form of degree ${\displaystyle g}$  (sometimes called the genus), weight ${\displaystyle \rho }$ , and level ${\displaystyle N}$  if

${\displaystyle (f{\big |}\gamma )=f}$ 

for all ${\displaystyle \gamma \in \Gamma _{g}(N)}$ . In the case that ${\displaystyle g=1}$ , we further require that ${\displaystyle f}$  be holomorphic 'at infinity'. This assumption is not necessary for ${\displaystyle g>1}$  due to the Koecher principle, explained below. Denote the space of weight ${\displaystyle \rho }$ , degree ${\displaystyle g}$ , and level ${\displaystyle N}$  Siegel modular forms by

${\displaystyle M_{\rho }(\Gamma _{g}(N)).}$ 

Some methods for constructing Siegel modular forms include:

• Eisenstein series
• Theta functions of lattices and Siegel theta series
• Saito–Kurokawa lift for degree 2
• Ikeda lift
• Miyawaki lift
• Products of Siegel modular forms.

For degree 1, the level 1 Siegel modular forms are the same as level 1 modular forms. The ring of such forms is a polynomial ring C[E₄,E₆] in the (degree 1) Eisenstein series E₄ and E₆.

For degree 2, (Igusa 1962, 1967) showed that the ring of level 1 Siegel modular forms is generated by the (degree 2) Eisenstein series E₄ and E₆ and 3 more forms of weights 10, 12, and 35. The ideal of relations between them is generated by the square of the weight 35 form minus a certain polynomial in the others.

For degree 3, Tsuyumine (1986) described the ring of level 1 Siegel modular forms, giving a set of 34 generators.

For degree 4, the level 1 Siegel modular forms of small weights have been found. There are no cusp forms of weights 2, 4, or 6. The space of cusp forms of weight 8 is 1-dimensional, spanned by the Schottky form. The space of cusp forms of weight 10 has dimension 1, the space of cusp forms of weight 12 has dimension 2, the space of cusp forms of weight 14 has dimension 3, and the space of cusp forms of weight 16 has dimension 7 (Poor & Yuen 2007) harv error: no target: CITEREFPoorYuen2007 (help).

For degree 5, the space of cusp forms has dimension 0 for weight 10, dimension 2 for weight 12. The space of forms of weight 12 has dimension 5.

For degree 6, there are no cusp forms of weights 0, 2, 4, 6, 8. The space of Siegel modular forms of weight 2 has dimension 0, and those of weights 4 or 6 both have dimension 1.

For small weights and level 1, Duke & Imamoḡlu (1998) give the following results (for any positive degree):

• Weight 0: The space of forms is 1-dimensional, spanned by 1.
• Weight 1: The only Siegel modular form is 0.
• Weight 2: The only Siegel modular form is 0.
• Weight 3: The only Siegel modular form is 0.
• Weight 4: For any degree, the space of forms of weight 4 is 1-dimensional, spanned by the theta function of the E₈ lattice (of appropriate degree). The only cusp form is 0.
• Weight 5: The only Siegel modular form is 0.
• Weight 6: The space of forms of weight 6 has dimension 1 if the degree is at most 8, and dimension 0 if the degree is at least 9. The only cusp form is 0.
• Weight 7: The space of cusp forms vanishes if the degree is 4 or 7.
• Weight 8:In genus 4, the space of cusp forms is 1-dimensional, spanned by the Schottky form and the space of forms is 2-dimensional. There are no cusp forms if the genus is 8.
• There are no cusp forms if the genus is greater than twice the weight.

The following table combines the results above with information from Poor & Yuen (2006) harvtxt error: no target: CITEREFPoorYuen2006 (help) and Chenevier & Lannes (2014) and Taïbi (2014).

The theorem known as the Koecher principle states that if ${\displaystyle f}$  is a Siegel modular form of weight ${\displaystyle \rho }$ , level 1, and degree ${\displaystyle g>1}$ , then ${\displaystyle f}$  is bounded on subsets of ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}_{g}}$  of the form

${\displaystyle \left\{\tau \in {\mathcal {H}}_{g}\ |{\textrm {Im}}(\tau )>\epsilon I_{g}\right\},}$ 

where ${\displaystyle \epsilon >0}$ . Corollary to this theorem is the fact that Siegel modular forms of degree ${\displaystyle g>1}$  have Fourier expansions and are thus holomorphic at infinity.^[1]

In the D1D5P system of supersymmetric black holes in string theory, the function that naturally captures the microstates of black hole entropy is a Siegel modular form.^[2] In general, Siegel modular forms have been described as having the potential to describe black holes or other gravitational systems.^[2]

Siegel modular forms also have uses as generating functions for families of CFT2 with increasing central charge in conformal field theory, particularly the hypothetical AdS/CFT correspondence.^[3]

• Chenevier, Gaëtan; Lannes, Jean (2014), Formes automorphes et voisins de Kneser des réseaux de Niemeier, arXiv:1409.7616, Bibcode:2014arXiv1409.7616C
• Duke, W.; Imamoḡlu, Ö. (1998), "Siegel modular forms of small weight", Math. Ann., 310 (1): 73–82, doi:10.1007/s002080050137, MR 1600030, S2CID 122219495
• Freitag, E. (1983), Siegelsche Modulfunktionen, Grundlehren der Mathematischen Wissenschaften, vol. 254. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-68649-8, ISBN 978-3-540-11661-5, MR 0871067{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• van der Geer, Gerard (2008), "Siegel Modular Forms and Their Applications", The 1-2-3 of modular forms, 181–245, Universitext, Berlin: Springer, pp. 181–245, arXiv:math/0605346, doi:10.1007/978-3-540-74119-0_3, ISBN 978-3-540-74117-6, MR 2409679
• Igusa, Jun-ichi (1962), "On Siegel modular forms of genus two", Amer. J. Math., 84 (1): 175–200, doi:10.2307/2372812, JSTOR 2372812, MR 0141643
• Klingen, Helmut (2003), Introductory Lectures on Siegel Modular Forms, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-35052-5
• Siegel, Carl Ludwig (1939), "Einführung in die Theorie der Modulfunktionen n-ten Grades", Math. Ann., 116: 617–657, doi:10.1007/bf01597381, MR 0001251, S2CID 124337559
• Taïbi, Olivier (2014), Dimensions of spaces of level one automorphic forms for split classical groups using the trace formula, arXiv:1406.4247, Bibcode:2014arXiv1406.4247T
• Tsuyumine, Shigeaki (1986), "On Siegel modular forms of degree three", Amer. J. Math., 108 (4): 755–862, doi:10.2307/2374517, JSTOR 2374517, MR 0853217