Arithmetic partial differential equations, II

We continue the study of arithmetic partial differential equations initiated in [7] by classifying “arithmetic convection equations” on modular curves, and by describing their space of solutions. Certain of these solutions involve the Fourier expansions of the Eisenstein modular forms of weight 4 and 6, while others involve the Serre-Tate expansions (Mori, 1995 [13], Buium, 2003 [4]) of the same modular forms; in this sense, our arithmetic convection equations can be seen as “unifying” the two types of expansions. The theory can be generalized to one of “arithmetic heat equations” on modular curves, but we prove that they do not carry “arithmetic wave equations.” Finally, we prove an instability result for families of arithmetic heat equations converging to an arithmetic convection equation.