Controlling the Galois images in one-dimensional families of \(\ell\)-adic representations (Q403606)

Let \(\ell\) be a prime, and let \(\rho:\pi_1(S)\to \mathrm{GL}_r(\mathbb{Z}_\ell)\) be an \(\ell\)-adic representation of the étale fundamental group of a smooth geometrically connected curve \(S\) over a finitely generated field \(k\) of characteristic 0. Fix any positive integer \(d\). Let \(G\) and \(\bar G\) be the images in \(\mathrm{GL}_r(\mathbb{Z}_\ell)\) of \(\pi_1(S)\) and of \(\pi_1(S_{\bar k})\) respectively, and let \(G_s\) be the image of the absolute Galois group \(\Gamma_{k(s)}\) of the residue field \(k(s)\) for a closed point \(s\in S\) viewed as the decomposition subgroup at \(s\) in \(\pi_1(S)\). Write \(\mathfrak{g}\), \(\bar{\mathfrak{g}}\), \(\mathfrak{g}_s\) for the Lie algebras of \(G\), \(\bar G\), \(G_s\) respectively and put \(\bar{\mathfrak g}_s:=\bar{\mathfrak g}\cap \mathfrak{g}_s\) so that \(\mathfrak{g}_s\twoheadrightarrow\mathfrak{g}/\bar{\mathfrak g}\) implies \(\mathrm{codim}_{{\mathfrak g}_s}(\mathfrak g) =\mathrm{codim}_{\bar{\mathfrak g}_s}(\bar{\mathfrak g})\). This codimension has been shown, in a previous work by the authors, to be at most 2 for almost all \(s\in S\) with \([k(s):k]\leq d\). A main result of this paper states that all but finitely many \(s\in S\) with \([k(s):k]\leq d\) satisfy either: (i) \(\mathrm{codim}_{{\mathfrak g}_s}(\mathfrak g)\leq 1\) and \(\bar{\mathfrak g}_s\supset[\bar{\mathfrak g},\bar{\mathfrak g}]\); or (ii) \(\mathrm{codim}_{{\mathfrak g}_s}(\mathfrak g)=2\) and \(\bar{\mathfrak g}_s\supset [[\bar{\mathfrak g},\bar{\mathfrak g}], [\bar{\mathfrak g},\bar{\mathfrak g}]]\). There is also shown an ``arithmetic'' variant of the above result that implies, e.g., that if \(\mathfrak g/\bar{\mathfrak g}\) has no \(\mathfrak{sl}_2(\mathbb{Q}_\ell)\)-quotient, then \({\mathfrak g}_s\) contains the 3rd derived Lie subalgebra of \(\mathfrak g\) for all but finitely many \(s\in S\) with \([k(s):k]\leq d\).