Newforms mod $p$ in squarefree level with applications to Monsky’s Hecke-stable filtration

Abstract

We propose an algebraic definition of the space of l-new mod-p modular forms for Gamma0(Nl) in the case that l is prime to N, which naturally generalizes to a notion of newforms modulo p in squarefree level. We use this notion of newforms to interpret the Hecke algebras on the graded pieces of the space of mod-2 level-3 modular forms described by Paul Monsky. Along the way, we describe a renormalized version of the Atkin-Lehner involution: no longer an involution, it is an automorphism of the algebra of modular forms, even in characteristic p.