Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 75 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Normalize the weight-four and weight-six Eisenstein series to have constant term one. Their Fourier expansions beginTheir absolutely convergent lattice sums transform by modular weights four and six under reindexing by the modular group, and their Fourier expansions prove holomorphy at its modular cusp. Thus they are elements of .
We use the valence formula for the modular group: for a nonzero weight- form,The sum uses one point of each ordinary orbit. This is the argument principle on a truncated fundamental region: paired vertical integrals cancel, the circle pairing contributes the modular weight term, and local quotient coordinates at the two elliptic points of a modular curve modular weight their orders by . All orders are nonnegative for a holomorphic modular form.
Define the modular discriminant byIt is a weight-twelve cusp form. Its order at infinity is one, exhausting the valence total . Hence has no zeros in . Therefore every weight- cusp form is divisible by , with quotient holomorphic on and at the modular cusp:Negative modular weights vanish by the valence formula, and odd modular weights vanish because acts by . Weight-zero forms are constant: they descend holomorphically to the compactified modular curve, and the maximum modulus principle applies. There are no weight-two forms: forces a zero at , whose valence contribution exceeds .
Every nonnegative even modular weight other than two is with . If , take ; if and , take . For , choose such a monomial , whose constant term is one. Subtracting the constant term of gives , soInduction on modular weight, together with , proves that every modular form is a polynomial in .
For algebraic independence, first fix one modular weight . All solutions of have the same residue of modulo three and the same parity of . Consequently their monomials can be writtenfor suitable . On an open set where the common factor and are nonzero, a linear relation would give a polynomial relation inThis is nonconstant. By the open mapping theorem, a polynomial vanishing on all its values must be the zero polynomial. Thus same-weight monomials are linearly independent.
Different modular weights cannot cancel either. Suppose with each weighted homogeneous. Transform by . At any fixed this givesThe numbers are infinitely many distinct values, so the polynomial in that number vanishes identically, and every . The same-weight independence then sets every coefficient to zero. This is the graded weights separate analytic polynomial relations argument. Hencewith algebraically independent generators. Multiplying the two Eisenstein series by their nonzero lattice-normalization constants does not alter either generation or independence.