Computing the level of a modular rigid Calabi-Yau threefold

Abstract

In a previous article (a joint work with J. Manoharmayum) the modularity of a large class of rigid Calabi-Yau threefolds was established. To make that result more explicit, we recall (and re-prove) a result of Serre giving a bound for the conductor of an "integral" 2-dimensional compatible family of Galois representations and apply this result to give an algorithm that determines the level of a modular rigid Calabi-Yau threefold. We apply the algorithm to three examples.