Modular forms via invariant theory (Q6159116)

Two methods of constructing modular forms are presented here. \par We may write a binary form of degree \(r\) as \(\sum a_i\binom{r}{i}x^iy^{r-i}\in {\operatorname{Sym}}^r(V)\) (where \(V=\langle x,y\rangle\)). An invariant of degree \(d\) is a polynomial of degree \(d\) in the \(a_i\), invariant under \({\operatorname{SL}}(V)\): we denote the set of such invariants by \(\mathcal{I}_d(V_r)\). This makes the set \(\mathcal{I}(V_r)\) of invariants into a graded ring. An invariant is said to be of order \(n\) if \({\operatorname{GL}}(V)\) transforms it by \(\det^n\). \par Fix a congruence subgroup \(\Gamma\) of \({\operatorname{SL}}(2,{\mathbb{Z}})\) and let \(M_s(\Gamma)\) be the set of weight \(s\) modular forms. The authors define a map \(\Psi\colon \mathcal{I}_d(V_r)\times M_k(\Gamma)\to M_{dk+2n}(\Gamma)\), which, for fixed \(f\in M_k\) with derivatives \(f^{(j)}\), simply replaces the coefficients \(a_i\) by \(i!\binom{k+r-1}{i}f^{(r-i)}\), and they show that for fixed \(f\) the map \(I\mapsto \Psi(I,f)\) is a homomorphism from \(\mathcal{I}(V_r)\) to the ring of modular forms for \(\Gamma\). \par This explains very simply how transvectants give rise to Rankin-Cohen brackets, and it also gives a simple way of writing down many modular forms, especially as the result also holds for forms with character and for multi-invariants, coming from direct sums of different \(V_r\)s. Several examples are given. \par A second result concerns vector-valued modular forms (and no derivatives). If \(f\) is a modular form of weight \(\rho\) and \(I\) a concomitant of type \((d,\sigma)\) for the action of \({\operatorname{GL}}(g)\) on \(\rho\), then there is a way of applying \(I\) to \(f\) so as to obtain a form of weight \(\sigma\). The authors give an explanation of this, but choose to describe the effect by illustrative examples rather than state a notation-heavy theorem. The reader who wishes may easily write the theorem down anyway from the explanation. They also give one example in which both observations can be used at once.