The Jack Daniels problem (Q898813)

The Jack Daniels problem is a problem concerning the fact that the prime divisors \(2,3,5,7,11\), \(13,17,19,23,29,31,41,47,59,71\) of the order \(| {\mathbb M} |\) of the monster simple group \({\mathbb M}\) are the primes \(p\) for which the characteristic \(p\) supersingular \(j\)-invariants are defined over the prime field \({\mathbb F}_p\). This fact was first noticed by A. Ogg in 1975. Let \(T_g(\tau) = \sum_{n=-1}^\infty \mathrm{tr}(g|V^\natural_n) q^n\), \(q = e^{2\pi i\tau}\) be the McKay-Thompson series for \(g \in {\mathbb M}\). For each prime divisor \(p\) of \(| {\mathbb M} |\), there is an order \(p\) element \(g_p\) of \({\mathbb M}\) for which \(T_{g_p}(\tau)\) is the normalized Hauptmodul for \(\langle \Gamma_0(p), w_p \rangle \subset \mathrm{SL}_2({\mathbb R})\) with \(w_p = \frac{1}{\sqrt{p}} \left(\begin{smallmatrix} 0 & -1\\ p & 0 \end{smallmatrix}\right)\). For \(T_{g_p}(\tau) = \sum_{n=-1}^\infty a(n) q^n\), define \(U_{g_p}(\tau) = \sum_{n=-1}^\infty a(pn) q^n\). The authors show that {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] \(U_{g_p}(\tau) \pmod{p}\) is a weight \(p-1\) cusp form modulo \(p\) on \(\mathrm{SL}_2({\mathbb Z})\). \item[(2)] \(U_{g_p}(\tau) \pmod{p}\) is a \({\mathbb Z}\)-linear sum of reciprocals of monic linear polynomials of the modular \(j\) function \(j(\tau)\). \end{itemize}} The roots of these polynomials constitute the set of supersingular \(j\)-invariants in characteristic \(p\) other that \(0\) and \(1728\). Actually, \(U_{g_p}(\tau) \pmod{p}\) is \(0\) if \(p \leq 11\). The assertion (2) implies that the characteristic \(p\) supersingular \(j\)-invariants can be produced from order \(p\) elements of \({\mathbb M}\).