MODULAR FORMS EXAM 1 - HOMEWORK RE-WRITE

ANDREW LEE

Homework Set 1, Problem 4

Let Γ! be the
" subgroup
! of SL
" 2 (Z) generated by the two matrices
1 1 0 −1
T = ,S= . Show that Γ is all of SL2 (Z).
0 1 1 0
! " ! "
a b 1 n
(a) For α = ∈ SL2 (Z) and T n = ,
c d 0 1
! #
"
a b
αT n = (1)
c nc + d
By the Division Algorithm, given integers c, d ∈ Z there exist inte-
gers n0 , r such that d = n0 c + r and |r| ≤ |c| 2 . Rearranging terms,
|c|
we get r = d − n0 c, so |d −!n0 c| ≤ 2 . Now " taking n = −n0 ,
#
a b
we see that αT n = αT −n0 = and by construction
c −n0 c + d
| − n0 c + d| ≤ |c| 2 . So, unless c = 0, some matrix αT has bottom row
n

(c, d# ) with |d# | ≤ |c|

2.
! " ! "
a b 0 −1
(b) For α = ∈ SL2 (Z) and S = ,
c d 1 0
! "
b −a
αS = (2)
d c
Using (1), we replaced the bottom right entry with the remainder r
in d = n0 c + r. Now, the matrix S switches the positions of the bot-
tom two entries, so now we repeat the process in part (a) with the
new integers c and d − n0 c; that is, we again find the remainder given
by the division algorithm using these two integers. Repetition of this
process is exactly the Euclidean algorithm, and continuing in this way
will terminate with the final remainder 0, i.e. one entry on the bottom
Date: November 3, 2009.
1
2 ANDREW LEE

will be zero. Multiplying by S again if necessary, the bottom row of

the matrix αγ now has the form (0, ∗).

(c) Since ad − bc = 1, c and d must be coprime. Because iteration of

the Euclidean algorithm gives the GCD, the final nonzero remainder on
the bottom row of the matrix is gcd(c, d) = ±1. We reduce this to the
! "−2
0 −1
case with bottom row (0, 1) by noting that S 2 = = −I.
1 0
(d) The bottom row of our matrix is now (0, 1), and because det(S) =
det(T ) = 1, det(αγ) = 1, the possible top-row entries are 1 on the left
and any n ∈ Z on the right. However, this is simply the matrix T n .
So, multiplying by T −n , we see that αγ = I for some α ∈ Γ, meaning
that α is the inverse of some matrix in Γ. It must then be the case
that α ∈ Γ, and Γ = SL2 (Z).