Singular Moduli of Shimura Curves

http://dx.doi.org/10.4153/CJM-2011-023-7
Canad. J. Math. 63(2011), 826-861

  Published:2011-04-25
 Printed: Aug 2011

The $j$-function acts as a parametrization of the classical modular curve. Its values at complex multiplication (CM) points are called singular moduli and are algebraic integers. A Shimura curve is a generalization of the modular curve and, if the Shimura curve has genus~$0$, a rational parameterizing function exists and when evaluated at a CM point is again algebraic over~$\mathbf{Q}$. This paper shows that the coordinate maps given by N.~Elkies for the Shimura curves associated to the quaternion algebras with discriminants $6$ and $10$ are Borcherds lifts of vector-valued modular forms. This property is then used to explicitly compute the rational norms of singular moduli on these curves. This method not only verifies conjectural values for the rational CM points, but also provides a way of algebraically calculating the norms of CM points with arbitrarily large negative discriminant.