Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/iii/paper-23/1/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 23 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The weights of and agree, so their ratio is invariant under the modular group. Nonvanishing of the modular discriminant on the half-plane makes the ratio holomorphic there. At an elliptic point, an invariant holomorphic function has a power series in the quotient coordinate, so the ratio descends holomorphically. At the unique modular cusp its expansion isThus it is a meromorphic function on the compact Riemann surface with precisely one pole, of order one. The degree of a nonconstant meromorphic map to the sphere equals its total pole order. It therefore has degree one, hence is a biholomorphism:This is the single-pole criterion for a spherical coordinate.
The matrix fixes . Weight-four transformation gives , and . Hence and . Since is a degree-one coordinate, this is a simple zero on the quotient surface. Pulled back to the half-plane it has order three, by the analytic ramification index in part (a).
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