We use a linear algebra interpretation of the action of Hecke operators on Drinfeld cusp forms to prove that when the dimension of the $\mathbb {C}_\infty $ -vector space $S_{k,m}(\mathrm {{GL}}_2(\mathbb {F}_q[t]))$ is one, the Hecke operator $\mathbf {T}_t$ is injective on $S_{k,m}(\mathrm {{GL}}_2(\mathbb {F}_q[t]))$ and $S_{k,m}(\Gamma _0(t))$ is a direct sum of oldforms and newforms.

We prove an observation associated with η3(τ)η3(7τ) which is found on page 54 of Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook (S. Ramanujan, The Lost Notebook and Other Unpublished Papers (Narosa, New Delhi, 1988)). We then study functions of the type η3(aτ)η3(bτ) with a+b=8.

An exact control theorem is proven for nearly ordinary $p$-adic automorphic forms on symplectic and unitary groups over totally real fields if the algebraic group is split at $p$. In particular, a given nearly ordinary holomorphic Hecke eigenform can be lifted to a family of holomorphic Hecke eigenforms indexed by weights of the standard maximal split torus of the group. Their $q$-expansion coefficients are Iwasawa functions on the Iwasawa algebra of ${\mathbb{Z}}_p$-points of the split torus. The method is applicable to any reductive algebraic groups yielding Shimura varieties of PEL type under mild assumptions on the existence of integral toroidal compactification of the variety. Even in the Hilbert modular case, the result contains something new: freeness of the universal nearly ordinary Hecke algebra over the Iwasawa algebra, which eluded my scrutiny when I studied general theory of the $p$-adic Hecke algebra in the 1980s.

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 11F03; 11F30; 11F33; 11F41; 11F60; 11G15; 11G18