Zagier proved that the traces of singular moduli, i.e., the sums of the values of the classical j-invariant over quadratic irrationalities, are the Fourier coefficients of a modular form of weight 3/2 with poles at the cusps. Using the theta correspondence, we generalize this result to traces of CM values of (weakly holomorphic) modular functions on modular curves of arbitrary genus. We also study the theta lift for the weight 0 Eisenstein series for SL(2,Z) and realize a certain generating series of arithmetic intersection numbers as the derivative of Zagier's Eisenstein series of weight 3/2. This recovers a result of Kudla, Rapoport and Yang.
We prove multiplicity one for vector valued holomorphic Siegel modular forms of weights greater or equal to 3 and the full Siegel modular group and give a trace formula for the action of the Hecke operators T(p) in the regular cases.
We prove an abstract modularity result for classes of Heegner divisors in the generalized Jacobian of a modular curve associated to a cuspidal modulus. Extending the Gross-Kohnen-Zagier theorem, we prove that the generating series of these classes is a weakly holomorphic modular form of weight 3/2. Moreover, we show that any harmonic Maass forms of weight 0 defines a functional on the generalized Jacobian. Combining these results, we obtain a unifying framework and new proofs for the Gross-Kohnen-Zagier theorem and Zagier's modularity of traces of singular moduli, together with new geometric i…
Zagier proved that the generating series for the traces of singular moduli is a \textit{weakly holomorphic} modular form of weight 3/2 on $Γ_0(4)$. Bruinier and Funke extended the results of Zagier to modular curves of arbitrary genus. Zagier also showed that the twisted traces of singular moduli are generated by a weakly holomorphic modular form of weight 3/2. In this paper, we study the extension of Zagier's result for the twisted traces of singular moduli to congruence subgroups $Γ_0(N)$. As an application, we study congruences for the twisted traces of singular moduli of weakly holomorphic…
Zagier proved that the traces of singular values of the classical j-invariant are the Fourier coefficients of a weight 3/2 modular form and Duke provided a new proof of the result by establishing an exact formula for the traces using Niebur's work on a certain class of non-holomorphic modular forms. In this short note, by utilizing Niebur's work again, we generalize Duke's result to exact formulas for traces of singular moduli of higher level modular functions.
We present a formula for vector-valued modular forms, expressing the value of the Hilbert-polynomial of the module of holomorphic forms evaluated at specific arguments in terms of traces of representation matrices, restricting the weight distribution of the free generators.
We describe (in a representation theoretic setting) a simple comparison of trace formulas, which implies that the conjugate of a Hilbert modular form $f$ by an automorphism of ${\Bbb C}$ again is a Hilbert modular form of the same level and conjugate weight as $f$. This is a Theorem of Shimura for which we obtain a new proof (cf. Theorem 3.3 and Corollary 3.4
The purpose of this note is to report on recent joint work with J. Funke, P. Jenkins, and K. Ono on the traces of CM values of modular functions and some applications.
We provide a generalization of an algebraic linear combination for the trace of certain elliptic modular forms, and through specializing the expression at a suitable pair consisting of an elliptic curve over algebraic number fields and its a certain cyclic subgroup with finite order, show a formula between distinct algebraic number fields, the one related to modular forms and the other related to elliptic curves.
In this preprint we prove that any finite slope modular form fits into a p-adic family of modular forms which is indexed by the weight. Here, the term p-adic family means that p-adic congruences between weights entail certain p-adic congruences between the corresponding modular forms. We also show that the dimension of the slope subspace of the space of modular forms does not depend on the weight. Both statements are predicted by the Mazur-Gouvea Conjecture, which has been proven by Coleman using methods from rigid analytic geometry. In contrast our proof is based on a comparison of (topologic…
After Zagier proved that the traces of singular moduli $j(z)$ are Fourier coefficients of a weakly holomorphic modular form, various properties of the traces of the singular values of modular functions mostly on the full modular group $PSL_2(\mathbb{Z})$ have been investigated such as their exact formulas, limiting distribution, duality, and congruences. The purpose of this paper is to generalize these arithmetic properties of traces of singular values of a weakly holomorphic modular function on the full modular group to those on a congruence subgroup $Γ_0(N)$.
We present the first example of the Selberg type zeta function for noncompact higher rank locally symmetric spaces. We study certain Selberg type zeta functions and Ruelle type zeta functions attached to the Hilbert modular group of a real quadratic field. We show that they have meromorphic extensions to the whole complex plane and satisfy functional equations. The method is based on considering the differences among several Selberg trace formulas with different weights for the Hilbert modular group. Besides as an application of the differences of the Selberg trace formula, we also obtain an a…
We give a new, simple proof of the trace formula for Hecke operators on modular forms for finite index subgroups of the modular group. The proof uses algebraic properties of certain universal Hecke operators acting on period polynomials of modular forms, and it generalizes an approach developed by Don Zagier and the author for the modular group. This approach leads to a very simple formula for the trace on the space of cusp forms plus the trace on the space of modular forms. As applications, we investigate what happens when varying the weight or the level in the trace formula.
The aim of this article is to show that p-adic geometry of modular curves is useful in the study of p-adic properties of traces of singular moduli. In order to do so, we partly answer a question by Ono. As our goal is just to illustrate how p-adic geometry can be used in this context, we focus on a relatively simple case, in the hope that others will try to obtain the strongest and most general results. For example, for p=2, a result stronger than Thm.1 is proved in [Boylan], and a result on some modular curves of genus zero can be found in [Osburn] . It should be easy to apply our method, bec…
We elaborate an explicit version of the relative trace formula on $\PGL(2)$ over a totally real number field for the toral periods of Hilbert cusp forms along the diagonal split torus. As an application, we prove (i) a spectral equidistribution result in the level aspect for Satake parameters of holomorphic Hilbert cusp forms weighted by central $L$-values, and (ii) a bound of quadratic base change $L$-functions for Hilbert cusp forms with a subconvex exponent in the weight aspect.
We derive finite rational formulas for the traces of cycle integrals of certain meromorphic modular forms. Moreover, we prove the modularity of a completion of the generating function of such traces. The theoretical framework for these results is an extension of the Shintani theta lift to meromorphic modular forms of positive even weight.
We give a short proof of the trace formula for Hecke operators on modular forms for the modular group, using the action of Hecke operators on the space of period polynomials.
We give an exact formula of the average of adjoint $L$-functions of holomorphic Hilbert cusp forms with a fixed weight and a square-free level, which is a generalization of Zagier's formula known for the case of elliptic cusp forms on ${\rm SL}_2(\mathbb{Z})$. As an application, we prove that the Satake parameters of Hilbert cusp forms with a fixed weight and with growing square-free levels are equidistributed in an ensemble constructed by values of the adjoint $L$-functions.
Duke and the second author defined a family of linear maps from spaces of weakly holomorphic modular forms of negative integral weight and level 1 into spaces of weakly holomorphic modular forms of half integral weight and level 4 and showed that these lifts preserve the integrality of Fourier coefficients. We show that the generalization of these lifts to modular forms of genus 0 odd prime level also preserves the integrality of Fourier coefficients.
Let $p$ be a prime for which the congruence group $Γ_0(p)^*$ is of genus zero, and $j_p^*$ be the corresponding Hauptmodul. Let $f$ be a nearly holomorphic modular form of weight 1/2 on $Γ_0(4p)$ which satisfies some congruence condition on its Fourier coefficients. We interpret $f$ as a vector valued modular form. Applying Borcherds lifting of vector valued modular forms we construct infinite products associated to $j_p^*$ and extend Zagier's trace formula for singular values of $j_p^*$. Further we investigate the twisted traces of sigular values of $j_p^*$ and construct Borcherds products re…
Zagier's well-known work on traces of singular moduli relates the coefficients of certain weakly holomorphic modular forms of weight $1/2$ to traces of values of the modular $j$-function at imaginary quadratic points. A real quadratic analogue was recently studied by Duke, Imamoglu, and Tóth. They showed that the coefficients of certain weight $1/2$ mock modular forms \[ f_D = \sum_{d>0} a(d,D) q^d, \qquad D>0 \] are given in terms of traces of cycle integrals of the $j$-function. Their result applies to those coefficients $a(d,D)$ for which $dD$ is not a square. Recently Bruinier, Funke, and …
We compute the divisor of the modular equation on the modular curve $Γ_0(N) \backslash \mathbb H^*$ and then find recurrence relations satisfied by the modular traces of the Hauptmodul for any congruence subgroup $Γ_0(N)$ of genus zero. We also introduce the notions and properties of $Γ$-equivalence and $Γ$-reduced forms about binary quadratic forms. Using these, we can explicitly compute the recurrence relations for $N = 2, 3, 4, 5$.
We give an upper bound for the trace of a Hecke operator acting on the space of holomorphic cusp forms with respect to certain congruence subgroups. Such an estimate has applications to the analytic theory of elliptic curves over a finite field, going beyond the Riemann hypothesis over finite fields. As the main tool to prove our bound on traces of Hecke operators, we develop a Petersson formula for newforms for general nebentype characters.
In an important paper, Zagier proved that certain half-integral weight modular forms are generating functions for traces of polynomials in the $j$-function. It turns out that Zagier's work makes it possible to algorithmically compute Hilbert class polynomials using a canonical family of modular forms of weight $\frac{3}{2}$. We generalize these results and consider Haupmoduln for levels $1, 2, 3, 5, 7,$ and $13$. We show that traces of singular values of polynomials in Haupmoduln are again described by coefficients of half-integral weight modular forms. This realization makes it possible to al…
For primes p congruent to 1 mod 12, we present an explicit relation between the traces of Frobenius on a family of elliptic curves with j-invariant 1728/t and values of a particular 2F1-hypergeometric function over F_p. Additionally, we determine a formula for traces of Hecke operators T_k(p) on spaces of cusp forms of weight k and level 1 in terms of the same traces of Frobenius. This leads to formulas for Ramanujan's tau-function in terms of hypergeometric functions.
We show that the generating series of traces of reciprocal singular moduli is a mixed mock modular form of weight $3/2$ whose shadow is given by a linear combination of products of unary and binary theta functions. To prove these results, we extend the Kudla-Millson theta lift of Bruinier and Funke to meromorphic modular functions.
We study the cohomology of certain local systems on moduli spaces of principally polarized abelian surfaces with a level 2 structure. The trace of Frobenius on the alternating sum of the étale cohomology groups of these local systems can be calculated by counting the number of pointed curves of genus 2 with a prescribed number of Weierstrass points over the given finite field. This cohomology is intimately related to vector-valued Siegel modular forms. The corresponding scheme in level 1 was carried out in [FvdG]. Here we extend this to level 2 where new phenomena appear. We determine the cont…
It is one of the remarkable results of vertex operator algebras (VOAs) that the graded traces (one-point correlation functions) of holomorphic VOAs are modular functions. This paper explores the question of which modular functions arise as the graded traces of holomorphic VOAs. For VOAs of small central charge, i.e., $c\le 24$, and a non-zero weight-one subspace, we find that the only conditions imposed on the modular fuctions are those that arise easily out of our condition that the VOAs be of CFT type, that is that they have no negative-weight subspaces and their zero-weight subspace is gene…
In a series of lectures Selberg introduced a trace formula on the space of hybrid Maass-modular forms of an irreducible uniform lattice in $\PSL_2(\bbR)^n$. In this paper we derive the analogous formula for a non-uniform lattice and use it to study the distribution of elliptic-hyperbolic conjugacy classes. In particular, for Hilbert modular groups there is a nice interpretation of these results in terms of class numbers and fundamental units of quadratic forms over totally real number fields.
First we reprove, using representation theory and the relative trace formula of Jacquet, an average value result of Duke for modular L-series at the critical center. We also establish a refinement. To be precise, the L-value which appears is L(1/2, f)L(1/2,f,χ) (divided by the Petersson norm of f), and the average is over newforms f of prime level N and coefficients a_p(f), with χbeing an odd quadratic Dirichlet character of conductor -D and associated quadratic field K. For any prime p not dividing ND, the asymptotic as N goes to infinity is governed by a measure μ_p, which is the Plancherel …
Let $f$ be a Drinfeld modular form for $Γ_0(\mathfrak{p})$. From such a form, one can obtain two forms for the full modular group $\operatorname{GL}_2(A)$: by taking the trace or the norm from $Γ_0(\mathfrak{p})$ to $\operatorname{GL}_2(A)$. In this paper we show some connections between the arithmetic modulo $\mathfrak{p}$ of the coefficients of the $u$-series expansion of $f$ and those of a form closely related to its trace, and of the coefficients of $f$ and those of its norm.
In this paper, we investigate traces of cycle integrals of certain meromorphic modular forms. By relating them to regularised theta lifts we provide explicit formulae for them in terms of coefficients of harmonic Maass forms.
In this paper we will describe all vector-valued Siegel modular forms of degree 2 and weight ${\rm Sym}^6({\rm St}) \otimes \det^{k}({\rm St})$ with $k$ odd. These vector-valued forms constitute a module over the ring of classical Siegel modular forms of degree 2 and even weight and this module turns out to be free. In order to find generators, we generalize certain Rankin-Cohen differential operators on triples of classical Siegel modular forms that were first considered by Ibukiyama and we find a Rankin-Cohen bracket on vector-valued Siegel modular forms.
We investigate non-correlation of Fourier coefficients of Maass forms against a class of real oscillatory functions, in analogy to known results with Frobenius trace functions. We also establish an equidistribution result for twisted horocycles as a consequence of our non-correlation result.
We use relative trace formula to prove a non-vanishing result and a subconvexity result for the twisted base change $L$-functions associated to Hilbert modular forms whose local components at ramified places are some supercuspidal representations. This generalizes the work of Feigon and Whitehouse.
We complete several generating functions to non-holomorphic modular forms in two variables. For instance, we consider the generating function of a natural family of meromorphic modular forms of weight two. We then show that this generating series can be completed to a smooth, non-holomorphic modular form of weights 3/2 and two. Moreover, it turns out that the same function is also a modular completion of the generating function of weakly holomorphic modular forms of weight 3/2, which prominently appear in work of Zagier on traces of singular moduli.
Borcherds-Zagier bases of the spaces of weakly holomorphic modular forms of weights 1/2 and 3/2 share the Fourier coefficients which are traces of singular moduli. Recently, Duke, Imamoglu, and Tóth have constructed a basis of the space of weight 1/2 mock modular forms, each member in which has Zagier's generating series of traces of singular moduli as its shadow. They also showed that Fourier coefficients of their mock modular forms are sums of cycle integrals of the $j$-function which are real quadratic analogues of singular moduli. In this paper, we prove the Fourier coefficients of a basis…
We describe a relationship between the representation theory of the Thompson sporadic group and a weakly holomorphic modular form of weight one-half that appears in work of Borcherds and Zagier on Borcherds products and traces of singular moduli. We conjecture the existence of an infinite dimensional graded module for the Thompson group and provide evidence for our conjecture by constructing McKay--Thompson series for each conjugacy class of the Thompson group that coincide with weight one-half modular forms of higher level. We also observe a discriminant property in this moonshine for the Tho…
We survey the theory of vector-valued modular forms and their connections with modular differential equations and Fuchsian equations over the three-punctured sphere. We present a number of numerical examples showing how the theory in dimensions 2 and 3 leads naturally to close connections between modular forms and hypergeometric series.
Recently, Bruinier and Ono found an algebraic formula for the partition function in terms of traces of singular moduli of a certain non-holomorphic modular function. In this paper we prove that the rational polynomial having these singuar moduli as zeros is (essentially) irreducible, settling a question of Bruinier and Ono. The proof uses careful analytic estimates together with some related work of Dewar and Murty, as well as extensive numerical calculations of Sutherland.
We show that the values of a certain family of weakly holomorphic modular functions at points in the divisors of any meromorphic modular form with algebraic Fourier coefficients are algebraic. We use this to extend the classical result of Schneider by proving that zeros or poles of any non-zero meromorphic modular form with algebraic Fourier coefficients are either transcendental or imaginary quadratic irrational.
We present a deterministic algorithm for computing spaces of weight 1 modular forms with exotic representations. This algorithm is an improved version of Schaeffer's Hecke stability method, utilising the author's previous work on the twist-minimal trace formula for weight 2 holomorphic forms, and presenting a method of lifting forms from characteristic p. The algorithm was used to compute all such forms with level at most 10,000. Together with Sutherland's computation of dihedral forms, this allows us to present the dimensions of all weight 1 newform spaces up to level 10,000.
The elliptic modular j function enjoys many beautiful properties. Its Fourier coefficients are related to the Monster group, and its CM values generate abelian extensions over imaginary quadratic fields. Kaneko gave an arithmetic formula for the Fourier coefficients expressed in terms of the traces of the CM values. In this article, we are concerned with analogues of Kaneko's result for the McKay-Thompson series of square-free level.
The denominator formula for the Monster Lie algebra is the product expansion for the modular function $j(z)-j(τ)$ given in terms of the Hecke system of $\operatorname{SL}_2(\mathbb Z)$-modular functions $j_n(τ)$. It is prominent in Zagier's seminal paper on traces of singular moduli, and in the Duncan-Frenkel work on Moonshine. The formula is equivalent to the description of the generating function for the $j_n(z)$ as a weight 2 modular form with a pole at $z$. Although these results rely on the fact that $X_0(1)$ has genus 0, here we obtain a generalization, framed in terms of polar harmonic …
This article is an overview of Zagier's and Kim's work on traces of singular moduli. We give more detailed or new proofs to some of their results and also describe some algorithms to compute spaces of Jacobi forms and weight $3/2$ modular forms. Also, for $p$ a prime dividing the order of the Monster group, we give an explicit construction of the Hauptmodul $j_p$ of $Γ_0(p)^*$ using Rademacher series and Rademacher sums.
In 2008, M. Kaneko made several interesting observations about the values of the modular j invariant at real quadratic irrationalities. The values of modular functions at real quadratics are defined in terms of their cycle integrals along the associated geodesics. In this paper we prove some of the conjectures of M. Kaneko for a general modular function.
