Supersingular Loci from Traces of Hecke Operators

A classical observation of Deligne shows that, for any prime $p \geq 5$, the divisor polynomial of the Eisenstein series $E_{p-1}(z)$ mod $p$ is closely related to the supersingular polynomial at $p$, $$S_p(x) := \prod_{E/\bar{\mathbb{F}}_p \text{ supersingular}}(x-j(E)) \in \mathbb{F}_p[x].$$ Deuring, Hasse, and Kaneko and Zagier found other families of modular forms which also give the supersingular polynomial at $p$. In a new approach, we prove an analogue of Deligne's result for the Hecke trace forms $T_k(z)$ defined by the Hecke action on the space of cusp forms $S_k$. We use the Eichler-Selberg trace formula to identify congruences between trace forms of different weights mod $p$, and then relate their divisor polynomials to $S_p(x)$ using Deligne's observation.