Wednesday, 9 July 2008

algebraic number theory - Are there any Hecke operators acting on an elliptic curve with additive reduction that I don't know about?

I could have made this question very brief but instead I've maximally gone the other way and explained a huge amount of background. I don't know whether I put off readers or attract them this way. The question is waay down there.



Let f be a cuspidal modular eigenform of level Gamma0(N)subseteqSL2(mathbfZ) (for example f could be the weight 2 modular form attached to an elliptic curve) and let p be a prime. In the theory of modular forms, one Hecke operator at p is singled out, namely Tp, sometimes called Up if p divides N, and defined by the double coset attached to the matrix left(begin{array}{cc}p& 0\ 0&1end{array}right). Now f is an eigenform for Tp, and f has an eigenvalue for this operator---a Galois-theoretic interpretation of this eigenvalue is that it is (modulo fixing embeddings of overlinemathbfQ in overlinemathbfQell and mathbfC) the trace of the geometric Frobenius on the inertial invariants of the ell-adic representation attached to f, for ellnot=p a prime.



Now here is a very naive question that I don't know the answer to, and I really should, and I'm sure it's very well-known to people who do this sort of stuff. Say N=prM with M prime to p. One can approach the theory of Hecke operators entirely locally. Let K:=U0(pr) denote the subgroup of GL2(mathbfZp) consisting of matrices whose bottom left hand entry is 0 mod pr. Now there is an "abstract Hecke algebra" of locally left- and right-K-invariant complex-valued functions on G:=GL2(mathbfQp) with compact support. As a complex vector space this algebra has a basis consisting of the characteristic functions KgK as KgK runs through the double cosets of K in G. But this space also has an algebra structure, given by convolution.



If r=0 then K is maximal compact, and the structure of this Hecke algebra is well-known and easy. Via the Satake isomorphism, the abstract Hecke algebra is isomorphic to mathbfC[T,S,S1], with S and T independent commuting polynomial variables. The interpretation is that T is the usual Hecke operator Tp attached to the matrix left(begin{array}{cc}p& 0\ 0&1end{array}right) and S is the matrix attached to left(begin{array}{cc}p& 0\ 0&pend{array}right). One doesn't always see this latter Hecke operator explicitly in elementary developments of the theory because it acts in a very dull way---it acts by scalars on forms of a given weight and level Gamma0(N), typically (depending on normalisations) as the scalar pk2 on forms of weight k. In particular the "abstract Hecke algebra" doesn't give us any more information than that which classical texts explain, as it's generated by Tp, Sp and S1p.



The next case is r=1 and this case I also understand. The abstract Hecke algebra now is non-commutative, "because of oldforms": I don't think the operators attached to left(begin{array}{cc}p& 0\ 0&1end{array}right) and left(begin{array}{cc}0& p\ 1&0end{array}right) (that is, the operators corresponding to these double coset spaces) commute, but if f has level Mp and is old at p then we should be working at level M, and if it's new at p then we get two invariants---the Tp (or Up) eigenvalue, which is classical, and the w-eigenvalue, which is the local sign for the functional equation. Again both of these numbers are classical and a lot is known about them. I am pretty sure that the abstract Hecke algebra in this case is generated by these operators Tp, w, and the uninteresting Sp and S1p, the latter two still acting by scalars on forms of a given weight. Am I right in thinking that these operators generate the local Hecke algebra? I think so.



The next case is r=2 and this I am not 100 percent sure I understand. The classical theory gives us Tp, Spm1p and w. Note that on a newform of level Gamma0(Mp2), Tp is zero in this situation, Sp acts by a scalar, and w is some subtle sign which people have clever ways of working out.




Finally then, the question! Let K be the subgroup of matrices in GL2(mathbfZp) consisting of matrices for which the bottom left hand corner is 0 mod p2. Let H denote the abstract double coset Hecke algebra of compactly supported K-bivariant functions on GL2(mathbfQp).




Is this abstract Hecke algebra generated (as a non-commutative algebra) by the characteristic functions of KgK for g in the set {left(begin{array}{cc}p& 0\ 0&1end{array}right), left(begin{array}{cc}0& p^2\ 1&0end{array}right), left(begin{array}{cc}p& 0\ 0&pend{array}right), left(begin{array}{cc}p^{-1}& 0\ 0&p^{-1}end{array}right)}?




In the language I've been using in the waffle above: modular forms of level p2 have an action of the Hecke operators Tp, w, and the invertible Sp. Are there any more, lesser known, Hecke operators that we're missing out on?

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