TITLE: Line bundles and modular forms
QUESTION [9 upvotes]: Let $X$ be a modular curve and $\mathcal{L}$ a line bundle on $X$. I found some literature regarding modular forms as global sections on $\mathcal{L}$. Under this context, my question is:
For any line bundle $\mathcal{L}$ on $X$ (given modular curve), can any global section of $\mathcal{L}$ be considered as a modular form? If then, could I see the way of interpretation?

REPLY [15 votes]: Write your curve as $\Bbb{H}/\Gamma $, with $\Gamma \subset PGL(2,\mathbb{R})$ acting freely on $\Bbb{H}$. The pull back of  $\mathcal{L}$ to $\Bbb{H}$ is the trivial line bundle $\Bbb{H}\times \mathbb{C}$; this implies that $\mathcal{L}$ is the quotient of $\Bbb{H}\times \mathbb{C})$ by $\Gamma $ acting by $\gamma \cdot (\tau , z)=(\gamma \tau , e_\gamma (\tau )z)$, where $\gamma \mapsto e_{\gamma }$ is a 1-cocycle of $\Gamma $ with values in $\mathcal{O}(\Bbb{H})^*$ (see the beginning of Mumford's Abelian varieties for a completely analogous analysis). It follows that the sections of $\mathcal{L}$ correspond to functions  $f:\Bbb{H}\rightarrow \mathbb{C}$ satisfying $f(\gamma \tau )= e_{\gamma }(\tau )f(\tau )$. 
These can be considered as  modular forms in a generalized sense. If you take  $\mathcal{L}=K_X^m$, the $m$-th power of the canonical bundle, we have  $e_{\gamma }(\tau )=(c\tau +d)^{2m}$ for $\gamma =\begin{pmatrix}
a & b\\ c & d
\end{pmatrix}$, and $\ f$ becomes a genuine modular form of weight $2m$ for $\Gamma $.