A combinatorial proof of Jacobi's elliptic identity via alternating permutations
Combinatorics
2026-02-17 v1
Abstract
We provide a unified combinatorial framework connecting Entringer numbers, Dumont-Viennot snakes, and elliptically weighted continued fractions, which gives a structural interpretation of the Jacobi elliptic identity \begin{equation} \mathrm{sn}'(u)=\mathrm{cn}(u)\,\mathrm{dn}(u), \end{equation} where , and are the Jacobi elliptic functions. This framework allows the decomposition of weighted snakes corresponding to the derivative of into canonical - and -components, bridging classical combinatorics and elliptic function theory.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.14568,
title = {A combinatorial proof of Jacobi's elliptic identity via alternating permutations},
author = {Jean-christophe Pain},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.14568},
year = {2026}
}