Reductions of Galois representations and the theta operator

Abstract: Let $p\ge 5$ be a prime, and let $f$ be a cuspidal eigenform of weight at least $2$ and level coprime to $p$ of finite slope $\alpha$. Let $\bar{\rho}_f$ denote the mod $p$ Galois representation associated with $f$ and $\omega$ the mod $p$ cyclotomic character. Under an assumption on the weight of $f$, we prove that there exists a cuspidal eigenform $g$ of weight at least $2$ and level coprime to $p$ of slope $\alpha+1$ such that $$\bar{\rho}_f \otimes \omega \simeq \bar{\rho}_g,$$ up to semisimplification. The proof uses Hida-Coleman families and the theta operator acting on overconvergent forms. The structure of the reductions of the local Galois representations associated to cusp forms with slopes in the interval $[0,1)$ were determined by Deligne, Buzzard and Gee and for slopes in $[1,2)$ by Bhattacharya, Ganguli, Ghate, Rai and Rozensztajn. We show that these reductions, in spite of their somewhat complicated behavior, are compatible with the displayed equation above. Moreover, the displayed equation above allows us to predict the shape of the reductions of a class of Galois representations attached to eigenforms of slope larger than $2$. Finally, the methods of this paper allow us to obtain upper bounds on the radii of certain Coleman families.