Hello,

I've found that the modular symbols code in Sage may detect interesting 
examples of torsion modular forms. For example:

G=DirichletGroup(13);
e=G.gen()^6; # e has order 2
M=ModularSymbols(e,2,-1); # M is 0
ep=e.change_ring(GF(3));
Mp=ModularSymbols(ep,2,-1); # Mp is one-dimensional

I think this is coming from the famous counterexample to the naive version 
of Serre's conjecture: there is a mod-3 modular form of weight 2 and level 
13 with quadratic character such that any lift to characteristic zero has 
non-quadratic character. This is something peculiar to mod-p forms for p=2 
or 3.

But it also sometimes gives confusing results:

M=ModularSymbols(7,8,1).cuspidal_subspace(); # M has dimension 3
Mp=ModularSymbols(7,8,1,GF(5)).cuspidal_subspace(); # M has dimension 4

I don't think this should happen: mod-5 modular forms of weight 8 and level 
Gamma0(7) should lift to characteristic 0 forms of the same type. I assume 
that what is happening is that Mp is not really computing 
H^1(X_0(7),\F_5)^+, which is I thing I think modular symbols should be.

Math question: Where is this extra dimension coming from? Does it have any 
interesting number theoretic meaning?

Sage question: Is this a bug? Should Sage warn us that, with finite-field 
coefficients, ModularSymbols might not be computing the thing I think it is 
computing?

Best wishes,
Preston

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