Orthogonality and Hecke operators (Q732850)

One of the results of the Atkin-Lehner theory says that the space \(S_k(M)\) of cusp forms of weight \(k\) and level \(M\) is the orthogonal direct sum (with respect to the Petersson inner product) of the subspaces \(S^{\text{new}}_k(M)\), \(S^{\text{old}}_k(M)\) of newforms and of oldforms. The space of oldforms is the direct sum of subspaces \(S^{\text{new}}_k(t)|V_d\), where \(t\), \(d\) run over the positive integers satisfying \(td|M\), \(t\neq M\), and where \((f|V_d)(z)= f(dz)\). The authors ask the question to what extent orthogonality may hold for pieces \(S^{\text{new}}_k(t)|V_d\). For a special case they find the following answer. Suppose that \(M= Np^r\), where \(p\) is a prime not dividing \(N\). Let \(V_{k,N,p}\) denote the maximal subspace of \(S_k(N)\) that is orthogonal to \(S_k(N)|V_p\) inside \(S_k(Np^r)\). Then \(V_{k,N,p}\) is equal to the kernel of the Hecke operator \(T(p)\) acting on \(S_k(N)\). One expects that this kernel is small. A generalization of the Lehmer conjecture would say that, in particular, \(V_{k,1,p}= \{0\}\) for all \(k\geq 12\) and all \(p\).