Rational equivalence of cusps

Abstract

We prove that two cusps of the same dimension in the Baily-Borel compactification of some classical series of modular varieties are linearly dependent in the rational Chow group of the compactification. This gives a higher dimensional analogue of the Manin-Drinfeld theorem. As a consequence, we obtain a higher dimensional generalization of modular units as higher Chow cycles on the modular variety.