The Galois closure of Drinfeld modular towers (Q626845)

Let \(R\) be the polynomial ring \({\mathbb F}_q[T]\) over a finite field \({\mathbb F}_q\) and \(\Gamma = \text{GL}(2,R)\) the Drinfeld modular group. For \(0 \not= \alpha \in R\), let \(\Gamma_0(\alpha)\) denote the Hecke congruence subgroup \(\{ {a\,b \choose c\,d} \in \Gamma | c\equiv 0(\bmod\,\alpha)\}\) of \(\Gamma\) of conductor \(\alpha\). Associated with these, we have the Drinfeld modular curves \(X = X(1)\) and \(X_0(\alpha)\), which are the quotients of the Drinfeld upper half-plane modulo the action of \(\Gamma\) resp. of \(\Gamma_0(\alpha)\). Since \(\Gamma_0(\alpha)\) fails to be normal in \(\Gamma\), the cover of \(X_0(\alpha)\) over \(X(1)\) fails to be Galois. Motivated by questions of coding theory the authors study the Galois closure of \(X_0(\alpha)\) (where \(\alpha\) is a power \(p^n\) of a prime \(p\) of \(R\)) over \(X_0(p^r)\), where \(0<r<n\). They describe the degrees of these covers, the generation of function fields, and various related subgroups and subquotients of \(\Gamma\). As is often the case in questions of this type, the results differ slightly in the general case (\(q>2\) or \(\deg(p) >1\)) and in the case \(q=2\), \(\deg(p) = 1\).