Newton polygons of Hecke operators

Abstract

In this computational paper we verify a truncated version of the Buzzard–Calegari conjecture on the Newton polygon of the Hecke operator $$T_2$$ for all large enough weights. We first develop a formula for computing p-adic valuations of exponential sums, which we then implement to compute 2-adic valuations of traces of Hecke operators acting on spaces of cusp forms. Finally, we verify that if Newton polygon of the Buzzard–Calegari polynomial has a vertex at $$n\le 15$$ , then it agrees with the Newton polygon of $$T_2$$ up to n.