In function fields in positive characteristic, we provide a concrete example of completely normal elements for a finite Galois extension. More precisely, for a nonabelian extension, we construct completely normal elements for Drinfeld modular function fields using Siegel functions in function fields. For an abelian extension, we construct completely normal elements for cyclotomic function fields.

We settle a part of the conjecture by Bandini and Valentino [‘On the structure and slopes of Drinfeld cusp forms’, Exp. Math. 31(2) (2022), 637–651] for $S_{k,l}(\Gamma _0(T))$ when $\mathrm {dim}\ S_{k,l}(\mathrm {GL}_2(A))\leq 2$. We frame and check the conjecture for primes $\mathfrak {p}$ and higher levels $\mathfrak {p}\mathfrak {m}$, and show that a part of the conjecture for level $\mathfrak {p} \mathfrak {m}$ does not hold if $\mathfrak {m}\ne A$ and $(k,l)=(2,1)$.

We use a linear algebra interpretation of the action of Hecke operators on Drinfeld cusp forms to prove that when the dimension of the $\mathbb {C}_\infty $-vector space $S_{k,m}(\mathrm {{GL}}_2(\mathbb {F}_q[t]))$ is one, the Hecke operator $\mathbf {T}_t$ is injective on $S_{k,m}(\mathrm {{GL}}_2(\mathbb {F}_q[t]))$ and $S_{k,m}(\Gamma _0(t))$ is a direct sum of oldforms and newforms.

The second author has recently introduced a new class of $L$-series in the arithmetic theory of function fields over finite fields. We show that the values at one of these $L$-series encode arithmetic information of a generalization of Drinfeld modules defined over Tate algebras that we introduce (the coefficients can be chosen in a Tate algebra). This enables us to generalize Anderson’s log-algebraicity theorem and an analogue of the Herbrand–Ribet theorem recently obtained by Taelman.

In this article we explain how the results in our previous article on ‘algebraic Hecke characters and compatible systems of mod $p$ Galois representations over global fields’ allow one to attach a Hecke character to every cuspidal Drinfeld modular eigenform from its associated crystal that was constructed in earlier work of the author. On the technical side, we prove along the way a number of results on endomorphism rings of ${\it\tau}$-sheaves and crystals. These are needed to exhibit the close relation between Hecke operators as endomorphisms of crystals on the one side and Frobenius automorphisms acting on étale sheaves associated to crystals on the other. We also present some partial results on the ramification of Hecke characters associated to Drinfeld modular eigenforms. An important phenomenon absent from the case of classical modular forms is that ramification can also result from places of modular curves of good but non-ordinary reduction. In an appendix, jointly with Centeleghe we prove some basic results on $p$-adic Galois representations attached to $\text{GL}_{2}$-type cuspidal automorphic forms over global fields of characteristic $p$.

Beilinson [Higher regulators and values of L-functions, Itogi Nauki i Tekhniki Seriya Sovremennye Problemy Matematiki Noveishie Dostizheniya (Current problems in mathematics), vol. 24 (Vserossiisky Institut Nauchnoi i Tekhnicheskoi Informatsii, Moscow, 1984), 181–238] obtained a formula relating the special value of the L-function of H2 of a product of modular curves to the regulator of an element of a motivic cohomology group, thus providing evidence for his general conjectures on special values of L-functions. In this paper we prove a similar formula for the L-function of the product of two Drinfeld modular curves, providing evidence for an analogous conjecture in the case of function fields.