Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/iii/paper-29/5/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 29 5 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Reduction modulo has kernel and is onto . To see surjectivity, use the Chinese remainder theorem to reduce to . In that local ring a unimodular column has a unit entry. Elementary row operations move a unit to the upper position and clear the lower one; diagonal matrices are products of elementary matrices as well. Explicitly, with denoting elementary shears,and multiplying this by the same matrix with gives . Thus elementary matrices generate the special linear group over each local ring. Chinese remaindering their parameters gives generation over the product ring, and every such parameter lifts to an integer. This proves the reduction is onto.
Over , there are choices for a nonzero first column and choices for a second column with determinant one, so . Each reduction from modulus to has kernel represented by , with modulo and , of size . Hence, for ,For the index is one. Since exactly when ,
For there are no nontrivial effective elliptic stabilizers. Indeed with determinant one has , and thereforeA noncentral elliptic element of has trace or , none congruent to modulo for . The central element at level two acts trivially and is not an elliptic point of the effective quotient. Thus for , while at level one both numbers are one.
The subgroup is normal, so all its modular cusps have the same effective width as infinity. That width is : the shear belongs to exactly when ; for its diagonal entries exclude the minus sign, and for that sign changes nothing. Since modular cusp widths sum to ,For the resulting principal congruence modular curve genus isFor clarity, the small levels, including all exceptional terms, areFor , every factor in the genus correction is positive, so . Therefore the genus-zero levels are exactly .
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