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This question is a follow-up to Monstrous Moonshine for Thompson group $Th$? and is based on various comments to that question, in particular S. Carnahan's mention of the connection to known Moonshine for the Thompson group via the fact that $$j(\tau/3)= q^{-1/9}+248 q^{2/9} +4124 q^{5/9} + \cdots $$ is the character of the 3C twisted module of $V^\natural$. This connection arises from the fact that $j^{1/3}$ is the Borcherds lift of a weakly holomorphic weight $1/2$ modular form for $\Gamma_0(4)$

$$b_{1A}(\tau) \equiv b(\tau)- 4 \theta(\tau) = \sum_{n=-3}^\infty c_{1A}(n) q^n$$

where $b(\tau)$ was defined in the question cited earlier and $$\theta(\tau) = \sum_{n=-\infty}^{+\infty} q^{n^2} $$.
This means that there is a Borcherds product $$ j(\tau)^{1/3}= \frac{E_4}{\eta^8} =\prod_{n=1}^\infty (1-q^n)^{c_{1A}(n^2)} $$ The fact that the coefficients $c_{1A}(n^2)$ are related to sums of dimensions of irreducible representations of the Thompson group is thus explained by the previous known example of Moonshine for the Thompson group, but this does not (at least naively) explain why the coefficients $c_{1A}(m)$ for $m$ that are not squares are also given by sums of dimensions of Thompson irreps with small multiplicities. Thus a perhaps more refined version of the earlier question is whether there is some additional Moonshine phenomenon going on for $b_{1A}(\tau)$ that goes beyond that connected with $j^{1/3}$. One way to test this further is to compute McKay-Thompson series by replacing the dimensions of irreps by characters. The low order terms for some simple examples lead to (using ATLAS notation)

$$ b_{1A}(\tau)= q^{-3}-248 q + (27000-248)q^4 -85995 q^5+1707264 q^8 - (4096000+248)q^9+44330496 q^{12} + \cdots $$ $$ b_{2A}(\tau)= q^{-3}+8q+128 q^4 +21 q^5-768 q^8+8 q^9 + 3584 q^{12} + \cdots $$ $$ b_{3A}(\tau) = q^{-3} -14 q -41 q^4-78 q^9+168 q^{12} + \cdots $$ $$ b_{3B}(\tau) = q^{-3}-5 q +22 q^4+27 q^5-54 q^8+3 q^9+6 q^{12} + \cdots $$

The dimensions of Thompson irreps were given in the earlier question and I repeat them here:

$$1, \color{blue}{248}, 4123, \color{blue}{27000}, 30628, 30875, 61256, \color{blue}{85995}, 147250, 767637, 779247, 957125, \color{blue}{1707264}, 2450240, 2572752, 3376737, \color{blue}{4096000}, 4123000, 4881384, 4936750,\dots\color{blue}{44330496},\dots 91171899, 111321000, 190373976.$$

My questions are

  1. How do I determine whether the expansions given above agree with the $q$ expansions of weakly holomorphic weight $1/2$ modular forms on some congruence subgroup like $\Gamma_0(8)$ or $\Gamma_0(12)$? I'm not sure what the rules of the game are here, so am not sure exactly which congruence subgroup one should look at.

  2. Is there a way to determine the above McKay-Thompson like series in terms of those for $j^{1/3}$ when twisted by these elements of the Thompson group?

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  • $\begingroup$ Are you thinking about modular representations or about complex representations of $Th$ ? $\endgroup$
    – F. C.
    Commented Mar 3, 2014 at 8:28
  • $\begingroup$ Complex representations. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 3, 2014 at 12:40
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    $\begingroup$ I'd appreciate any pointers on how one constructs a basis of weakly holomorphic weight 1/2 modular forms of a given level, independently of any moonshine connection. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 14, 2014 at 22:15
  • $\begingroup$ Concerning general computations with weight 1/2 forms: have you seen Serre-Stark, or Buzzard's notes www2.imperial.ac.uk/~buzzard/maths/research/notes/… ? $\endgroup$
    – S. Carnahan
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 10:59
  • $\begingroup$ @S.Carnahan: Thanks for the reference, but aren't those notes about holomorphic rather than weakly holomorphic weight 1/2 modular forms? The presence of negative powers of $q$ in the above expansions is crucial. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 13:41

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