$p$-adic Properties of Hauptmoduln with Applications to Moonshine

Abstract

The theory of monstrous moonshine asserts that the coefficients of Hauptmoduln, including the $j$-function, coincide precisely with the graded characters of the monster module, an infinite-dimensional graded representation of the monster group. On the other hand, Lehner and Atkin proved that the coefficients of the $j$-function satisfy congruences modulo $p^n$ for $p \in \{2, 3, 5, 7, 11\}$, which led to the theory of $p$-adic modular forms. We combine these two aspects of the $j$-function to give a general theory of congruences modulo powers of primes satisfied by the Hauptmoduln appearing in monstrous moonshine. We prove that many of these Hauptmoduln satisfy such congruences, and we exhibit a relationship between these congruences and the group structure of the monster. We also find a distinguished class of subgroups of the monster with graded characters satisfying such congruences.