On a vanishing conjecture appearing in the geometric Langlands correspondence (Q1772453)

The paper under review should be regarded as being both directly subsequent and complementary to the important work ``On the geometric Langlands conjecture'' by \textit{E. Frenkel, D. Gaitsgory} and \textit{K. Vilonen}, published two years before [J. Am. Math. Soc. 15, No. 2, 367--417 (2002; Zbl 1071.11039)]. In that foregoing article, the authors had tackled the so-called geometric Langlands conjecture stating that, for any smooth, complete and geometrically connected algebraic curve \(X\) over a field of characteristic \(p>0\) and for any irreducible rank-\(m\) local system \(E\) on \(X\), there should exist a perverse sheaf \({\mathcal F}_E\) on the moduli stack \(\text{Bun}_m\) of rank-\(m\) vector bundles over \(X\), which is a Hecke eigensheaf with respect to \(E\). In the case when the ground field is finite, a complete proof of the geometric Langlands conjecture was derived by developing a much more general approach, which, for its part, was based on another conjecture. This so-called vanishing conjecture in the geometric Langlands correspondence predicts that, for all integers \(n<m\), a certain functor \(Av_E^d:D(\text{Bun}_m)\), defined on the derived category of the stack \(\text{Bun}_m\) and depending on the local system \(E\) and a parameter \(d\in\mathbb Z^+\), vanishes identically if \(d\) is large enough. Finally, in their foregoing paper, the authors proved this crucial vanishing conjecture for finite ground fields by essentially using recent results of L. Lafforgue on Drinfeld shtukas and the Langlands correspondence [cf.: \textit{L. Lafforgue}, Invent. Math. 147, 1--241 (2002; Zbl 1038.11075)]. In the present paper, D. Gaitsgory investigates the afore-mentioned vanishing conjecture in the cases of various other ground fields. As both the geometric Langlands conjecture and the vanishing conjecture can be formulated in general sheaf-theoretic situations, this is certainly of highest interest and significance. In fact, the author proves the vanishing conjecture for sheaves with coefficients in a field of characteristic zero, or, more generally, in the case of \(\mathbb F_\ell\)-coefficients, where \(\ell\) is assumed to be greater than the functor parameter \(d\in\mathbb Z^+\). Without relying on the results of L. Lafforgue, his modified approach is based on the following strategy of proof: First, it is shown that instead of proving the vanishing of the functor \(Av^d_E\), it is sufficient to verify its exactness with respect to perverse \(t\)-structures. Secondly, it is proved that the functor \(Av_E^d\) can be expressed in terms of the particular functor \(Av_E^1\), provided that in the case of \(\mathbb{F}_\ell\)-coefficients the bound condition \(\ell>d\) is satisfied. Then, defining a suitable quotient triangulated category \(\widetilde D(\text{Bun}_m)\) associated to \(D(\text{Bun}_m)\), the exactness of the elementary functor \(Av_E^1\) on this quotient category is deduced. From that very fact, the author concludes that the functor \(Av_E^d\) is also exact modulo the subcategory of degenerate sheaves. Finally, by induction on the integer parameter \(n\), it is proved that \(Av_E^d\) is exact at all, thereby finishing the subtle, technically rather involved proof of the extended vanishing theorem in the geometric Langlands correspondence. As it is explained in the present paper, the vanishing of the functors \(A_E^d\) may be regarded as being analogous to the condition that the Rankin-Selberg convolution on the local system \(E\) is well-behaved in the context of \(m\)-dimensional Galois representations and automorphic \(\mathrm{GL}_n\)-forms.