Identities between Hecke Eigenforms

In this paper, we study solutions to $h=af^2+bfg+g^2$, where $f,g,h$ are Hecke newforms with respect to $\Gamma_1(N)$ of weight $k>2$ and $a,b\neq 0$. We show that the number of solutions is finite for all $N$. Assuming Maeda's conjecture, we prove that the Petersson inner product $\langle f^2,g\rangle$ is nonzero, where $f$ and $g$ are any nonzero cusp eigenforms for $SL_2(\mathbb{Z})$ of weight $k$ and $2k$, respectively. As a corollary, we obtain that, assuming Maeda's conjecture, identities between cusp eigenforms for $SL_2(\mathbb{Z})$ of the form $X^2+\sum_{i=1}^n \alpha_iY_i=0$ all are forced by dimension considerations. We also give a proof using polynomial identities between eigenforms that the $j$-function is algebraic on zeros of Eisenstein series of weight $12k$.