Dihedral Galois representations and Katz modular forms (Q1875714)

Summary: We show that any two-dimensional odd dihedral representation~\(\rho\) over a finite field of characteristic \(p>0\) of the absolute Galois group of the rational numbers can be obtained from a Katz modular form of level~\(N\), character~\(\varepsilon\) and weight~\(k\), where \(N\) is the conductor, \(\varepsilon\) is the prime-to-\(p\) part of the determinant and \(k\) is the so-called minimal weight of~\(\rho\). In particular, \(k=1\) if and only if \(\rho\) is unramified at~\(p\). Direct arguments are used in the exceptional cases, where general results on weight and level lowering are not available.