In mathematics, the Schwarz triangle function was introduced by H. A. Schwarz as the inverse function of the conformal mapping uniformizing a Schwarz triangle, i.e. a geodesic triangle in the upper half plane with angles which are either 0 or of the form π over a positive integer greater than one. Applying successive hyperbolic reflections in its sides, such a triangle generates a tessellation of the upper half plane (or the unit disk after composition with the Cayley transform). The conformal mapping of the upper half plane onto the interior of the geodesic triangle generalizes the Schwarz–Christoffel transformation. Through the theory of the Schwarzian derivative, it can be expressed as the quotient of two solutions of a hypergeometric differential equation with real coefficients and singular points at 0, 1 and ∞. By the Schwarz reflection principle, the discrete group generated by hyperbolic reflections in the sides of the triangle induces an action on the two dimensional space of solutions. On the orientation-preserving normal subgroup, this two dimensional representation corresponds to the monodromy of the ordinary differential equation and induces a group of Möbius transformations on quotients of solutions. Since the triangle function is the inverse function of such a quotient, it is therefore an automorphic function for this discrete group of Möbius transformations. This is a special case of a general method of Henri Poincaré that associates automorphic forms with ordinary differential equations with regular singular points. In the special case of ideal triangles, where all the angles are zero, the tessellation corresponds to the Farey tessellation and the triangle function yields the modular lambda function.
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