Chamber structure of modular curves \(X_1(N)\) (Q2283193)

In this article, the author focuses on the family of strata \(\mathcal H(a,-a)\), where \(a \geq 2\). Such strata, denoted by \(\mathcal H(a,-a)\) for \(a \geq 2\), are moduli spaces of biholomorphism classes of pairs of a genus-one Riemann surface and a meromorphic 1-form with exactly one zero of order \(a\) and a pole of order \(a\). Modular curves \(X_1(N)\) parametrize elliptic curves with a point of order \(N\). For \(a \geq 2\), the modular curves \(X_1(a)\) can be identified with connected components of projectivized strata \(\mathbb{P}\mathcal H(a,-a)\). They admit a canonical walls-and-chambers structure. Here chambers of projectivized strata are topological disks (with, in some cases, a puncture inside) and walls are real-codimension-one submanifolds which are affine in the period coordinates. In other words, walls are straight lines. They meet each other at the punctures of the algebraic complex curve. In this article, the author provides formulas for the number of chambers and an effective means for drawing the incidence graph of the chamber structure of any modular curve \(X_1(N)\). This defines a family of graphs with specific combinatorial properties. This approach provides a geometric-combinatorial computation of the genus and the number of punctures of modular curves \(X_1(N)\). Although the dimension of a stratum of meromorphic differentials depends only on the genus and the numbers of singularities, the topological complexity of the stratum crucially depends on the order of the singularities.