Fix an even weight and use the determinant-normalized slash operator for modular forms
It is unchanged by positive scalar multiples of and satisfies . The determinant-n matrix representatives for Hecke operators are
Indeed, integer row operations with determinant one send the first column of an integral determinant- matrix to , with ; the second diagonal entry is , and a row shear reduces modulo . This gives unique representatives of the left modular-group orbits.
Define the Hecke operator by
The set of integral matrices of determinant is stable under right multiplication by the modular group. Right multiplication therefore permutes its left orbits, proving the modular transformation law for . Each summand is holomorphic in the upper half-plane. Its imaginary argument tends to infinity at the cusp, so the formula preserves cusp holomorphy and maps to itself and to itself.
Expand each summand in q. The finite sum over vanishes unless the Fourier index is divisible by , when it equals . The coefficient at then receives a contribution for each , giving the Fourier coefficients of a composite-index Hecke operator formula
For interpret the sum over all divisors of , so the constant coefficient is . In particular and integral coefficients are preserved.
Here is a useful direct derivation of the Hecke multiplication relations. On formal Fourier series put and . They obey , although is generally not the identity. The coefficient formula gives
Multiplying by and using separates the terms with from the others and yields
For distinct primes, all the relevant shift operators commute. Thus when , and each prime-power operator is a polynomial in its prime operator. This proves commutativity. Induction on the smaller of two prime exponents, using the displayed recurrence, gives . Factoring general indices into primes then proves
The auxiliary shifts need not themselves preserve the level-one form space; they are used only to prove identities of coefficient sequences.
For cusp forms, the Petersson inner product is
It converges by exponential cusp decay, is positive-definite, and makes the Hecke operators self-adjoint. For the change-of-variable argument, the determinant-normalized slash action compensates exactly for the change in , while hyperbolic area is invariant. Integrating a correspondence term in the opposite direction replaces its matrix by its inverse. The adjugate is again an integral matrix of determinant ; it has the same slash action as , because scalar matrices act trivially. Summing over the two sets of representatives, equivalently over the common finite covering domains of the correspondence, interchanges and and proves . This explains Hecke operators are self-adjoint for the Petersson inner product with the present normalization.
Commuting self-adjoint operators on the finite-dimensional cusp space have a common orthonormal eigenbasis: diagonalize one, restrict the others to its invariant eigenspaces and repeat. If is a nonzero common Hecke eigenform, . The first coefficient cannot vanish, since then every coefficient would vanish. Normalize it to one. The eigenvalue is then , and the common eigenspace is one-dimensional because all its normalized Fourier coefficients are fixed. The eigenvalues are real by self-adjointness and are algebraic integers, since the Hecke operators act by integer matrices on the integral cusp-form lattice from Question 1. The integral echelon basis and the operator identity there also show that are an integral basis of the integral Hecke algebra of level-one cusp forms; independence follows by evaluating their first-coefficient functionals on .
The eigenform's coefficient relations are
They give the Euler product of a Hecke eigenform
in a sufficiently far right half-plane. The Mellin transform of a cusp-form L-function completes this to . Splitting at one and using gives
Exponential decay makes this an entire function of , and the formula proves .
On the noncuspidal line in positive even weights , the normalized Eisenstein series has eigenvalues , as follows from the same divisor formula for its coefficients; . As a cuspidal example, is spanned by the normalized modular discriminant. Its coefficients are the Hecke eigenvalues, and the recurrence gives from . Thus the Hecke theory converts analytic forms into multiplicative arithmetic data.
We use left multiplication by . For an integral matrix of determinant , the Bezout identity gives a determinant-one row operation sending its first column to , where is the positive gcd of that column. The resulting matrix is with . Adding a multiple of the second row to the first makes .
These representatives are unique. Left multiplication by a unimodular matrix preserves the gcd of the first column, so two representatives in one orbit have the same and hence . A matrix taking to itself has the form , so it changes by ; the prescribed range makes unique. Thus the determinant-n matrix representatives for Hecke operators are exactly . In the printed set, already forces , and forces .
For positive determinant extend the slash operator for modular forms by
The determinant factor makes this a right action: . Right multiplication by permutes the left cosets represented by , since it preserves the set of determinant- integral matrices. Hence satisfies the modular transformation law. Its summands are holomorphic on the upper half-plane. For an upper-triangular representative,
Substitute the Fourier expansion of a modular form. The sum over is zero unless the original index is divisible by , in which case it equals . Writing that index as gives
Only nonnegative powers occur, so is holomorphic at infinity, and all level-one cusps are equivalent to infinity. We have proved and the Fourier coefficients of a composite-index Hecke operator formula
Here , giving . In particular cusp forms stay cusp forms. For nonzero level-one cusp forms the weight is an even integer at least twelve, so the powers are integers; the zero cusp space causes no exception. Thus every preserves integral Fourier coefficients, and closure under addition, multiplication and integer scalars proves
This is the integral Hecke algebra of level-one cusp forms.
We will also need commutativity. The coefficient formula directly gives
For the first identity, the divisors of and in the iterated coefficient sum combine uniquely into a divisor of . For the second, write a coefficient index as with ; the formula is
Applying splits this into the two sums with shifts and ; their overlapping terms give exactly the stated recurrence. Since is the identity, induction expresses each as a polynomial in , and coprime multiplicativity expresses every as a product of these polynomials. Distinct prime operators commute by the coprime identity. Hence all Hecke operators commute, and so do all elements of .
Let and . In the permitted basis , the modular discriminant begins and the normalized Eisenstein series begin , so
The matrix of on this integral basis is unitriangular and has determinant one. Integer elimination therefore gives an integral basis with for . Thus are a -basis of the dual module .
The map is well-defined by lattice preservation and is -linear. Because , it is surjective. For injectivity suppose . For every and every , commutativity gives
The constant term is also zero because is a cusp form. The identity theorem applied to its Fourier expansion of a modular form gives . The integral basis spans the complex cusp space, so as an endomorphism. This proves the perfect integral Hecke pairing and
If , both modules are zero and the asserted basis is empty.
The pairing identifies the integral Hecke algebra of level-one cusp forms with the integral dual of the cusp-form lattice. An integral basis beginning gives a unitriangular first- coefficient matrix, so form a dual basis. Commutativity of the Hecke operators proves nondegeneracy on the algebra, and then form its integral basis.