 Solution

The effective group is torsion free and every modular cusp is regular in the preceding sense, so orders of a meromorphic weight-$k$ form are integers. At interior points use a local automorphy trivialization; at a modular cusp use the Fourier order of the appropriate slash transform in its cusp width coordinate. Let $C$ be the sum of all modular cusp points, each once, and setA meromorphic function $\phi$ belongs to the Riemann-Roch space $\mathcal{L}(D(f))$ exactly when $\mathrm{div}\phi +D(f)\ge 0$. In the interior this requires $f\phi$ to have no pole; at a modular cusp it requires order at least one. Conversely, the quotient of any weight-$k$ cusp form by $f$ is a meromorphic weight-zero function satisfying precisely those inequalities. This proves the cusp-form divisor presentationTo compute the degree without imposing a valence formula as an extra assumption, use the meromorphic tensor differential $f^{12}(d\tau {)}^{6k}$. Its automorphy factors cancel. Its order at an interior point is $12{\mathrm{ord}}_{P}f$; at a modular cusp it is $12{\mathrm{ord}}_{P}f-6k$, since $d\tau$ is a nonzero constant times $d{q}_c/q_c$. A meromorphic section of the $6k$th tensor power of the canonical bundle has total divisor degree $6k(2g-2)$. The regular-cusp valence formula on a torsion-free modular curve is thereforeFor $k\ge 3$, $\mathrm{deg}D(f)-(2g-2)=(k-2)d/12>0$. The Riemann-Roch theorem says $\ell (D)-\ell (K-D)=\mathrm{deg}D+1-g$, and a divisor of negative degree has no nonzero sections. Thus $\ell (K-D)=0$ andUsing $d=(p^2-1)/2$ and $r_{\infty }=p-1$ givesThe canonical-degree and Riemann-Roch facts used here are general results for compact Riemann surfaces, as permitted.