Supersingular Prime

There are two definitions of the supersingular primes: one group-theoretic, and the other number-theoretic.

Group-theoretically, let be the modular group gamma0, and let be the compactification (by adding cusps) of , where is the upper half-plane. Also define to be the Fricke involution defined by the block matrix . For p a prime, define . Then p is a supersingular prime if the genus of .

The number-theoretic definition involves supersingular elliptic curves defined over the algebraic closure of the finite field . They have their j-invariant in .

There are exactly 15 supersingular primes: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 41, 47, 59, and 71 (Sloane's A002267). The supersingular primes are exactly the set of primes that divide the group order of the Monster group.

Modular Group Gamma0, Monster Group



References

Conway, J. H.; Curtis, R. T.; Norton, S. P.; Parker, R. A.; and Wilson, R. A. Atlas of Finite Groups: Maximal Subgroups and Ordinary Characters for Simple Groups. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1985.

Conway, J. H. and Norton, S. P. "Monstrous Moonshine." Bull. London Math. Soc. 11, 308-339, 1979.

Ogg, A. P. "Modular Functions." In The Santa Cruz Conference on Finite Groups. Held at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Calif., June 25-July 20, 1979 (Ed. B. Cooperstein and G. Mason). Providence, RI: Amer. Math. Soc., pp. 521-532, 1980.

Silverman, J. H. The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986.

Silverman, J. H. The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves II. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1994.

Sloane, N. J. A. Sequences A002267 in "The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences." http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/.