On Decomposition of Drinfeld cusp forms of level $t$

Abstract

In this article, we first prove that the Hecke operator $T_t$ has no eigenform in $\Sla$ with eigenvalue $-t^{k/2}$, when the characteristic of the base field is odd. Furthermore, if $\dim \Slt$ is even, we show that $T_t$ has no eigenform in $\Sla$ with eigenvalue $t^{k/2}$. As a consequence, we prove that the direct sum decomposition $\Slt=\Sold \oplus \Snew$ holds when $\dim \Slt$ is even. This proves the conjecture \cite[Conjecture 1.1(3)]{BV19a} of Bandini and Valentino for an infinite family of cusp forms. In particular, for any weight $k$, there exists at least one type $m$ (there are only two possible non-trivial values of $m$) for which the conjecture \cite[Conjecture 1.1(3)]{BV19a} is true.