Automorphisms of Cartan modular curves of prime and composite level (Q2676960)

This paper studies the automorphism groups of modular curves, in particular modular curves of level \(n\) associated to a Cartan or Cartan plus subgroup of \(\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{Z}/n \mathbb{Z})\), where a Cartan plus subgroup coincides with normalizer of a Cartan subgroup if \(n\) is odd, but has an altered definition if \(n\) is even. There are two main results of the paper: 1. If \(n = p^e\) is a prime power, then aside from a small number of cases, the automorphism groups of the modular curves \(X_{\mathrm{ns}}(p^e), X_{\mathrm{ns}}^+(p^e), X_{\mathrm{s}}(p^e), X_{\mathrm{s}}^+(p^e)\) are the expected groups arising from modular automorphisms. 2. For general \(n \ge 10^{400}\), it is similarly proven that the expected automorphism groups are exhausted by modular automorphisms. 3. Data for low level cases \(n \le 64\) is provided. To achieve these results, the paper first shows an automorphism of \(X_H\) for large enough level \(n\) is defined over a compositum of quadratic fields by using an isogeny relation between Cartan or Cartan plus modular curves with more standard modular curves, for which they provide a complete version that covers all levels \(n\). By analyzing the action of Hecke operators on cusps of \(X_H\) and the branch points of \(\mathbb{H} \rightarrow X_H\), where \(H\) is a Cartan or Cartan plus subgroup of \(\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})\) and \(X_H\) is its associated modular curve, it is shown that an automorphism of \(X_H\) satisfies a commutation relation with the Hecke operators. This is used together with estimates on the gonality of \(X_H\) to show that an automorphism defined over a compositum of quadratic fields lifts to a modular automorphism.