Realization of modular Galois representations in the Jacobians of modular curves (Q2146476)

Let \(\ell \ge 5\) be a prime number. The purpose of this article is to improve the algorithm originally described by \textit{B. Edixhoven} (ed.) and \textit{J.-M. Couveignes} (ed.) [Computational aspects of modular forms and Galois representations. How one can compute in polynomial time the value of Ramanujan's tau at a prime. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (2011; Zbl 1216.11004)] for computing the \(\bmod\ell\) Galois representation \(\rho_f\) attached to a newform \(f\), in the sense of computing a rational polynomial the splitting field of which is the field fixed by \(\ker(\rho_f)\). The improvements consists in (1) removing an upper bound on the weight of \(f\) present in previous work, (2) allowing arbitrary prime-to \(\ell\) levels, and (3) speeding up the algorithm. The strategy of all algorithms following Edixhoven and Couveignes is to produce a modular form \(g\) of weight \(2\) such that its \(\bmod\ell\) Galois representation \(\rho_g\) is isomorphic to \(\rho_f\) and to realise \(\rho_g\) in the \(\ell\)-torsion of the Jacobian of a suitable modular curve. The running time of the algorithm then significantly depends on the dimension of this Jacobian and it is thus crucial to reduce this dimension as much as possible. The principal point of the present article is to exhibit the modular curve such that its Jacobian has smallest possible dimension and to present an algorithm for selecting and computing the corresponding modular form \(g\). The main result is flexible enough to allow arbitrary levels prime-to \(\ell\) and also arbitrary weights \(\ge 2\) via twisting by the \(\bmod\ell\) cyclotomic character.