Independence of ℓ of monodromy groups

Abstract

Let X X be a smooth curve over a finite field of characteristic p p , let E E be a number field, and let L = { L λ } \mathbf {L} = \{\mathcal {L}_\lambda \} be an E E -compatible system of lisse sheaves on the curve X X . For each place λ \lambda of E E not lying over p p , the λ \lambda -component of the system L \mathbf {L} is a lisse E λ E_\lambda -sheaf L λ \mathcal {L}_\lambda on X X , whose associated arithmetic monodromy group is an algebraic group over the local field E λ E_\lambda . We use Serre’s theory of Frobenius tori and Lafforgue’s proof of Deligne’s conjecture to show that when the E E -compatible system L \mathbf {L} is semisimple and pure of some integer weight, the isomorphism type of the identity component of these monodromy groups is “independent of λ \lambda ”. More precisely, after replacing E E by a finite extension, there exists a connected split reductive algebraic group G 0 G_0 over the number field E E such that for every place λ \lambda of E E not lying over p p , the identity component of the arithmetic monodromy group of L λ \mathcal {L}_\lambda is isomorphic to the group G 0 G_0 with coefficients extended to the local field E λ E_\lambda .