Complex conjugation and Shimura varieties

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Abstract: In this paper we study the action of complex conjugation on Shimura varieties and the problem of descending these to the maximal totally real field of the reflex field. We prove the existence of such descent for many Shimura varieties whose associated adjoint group has certain factors of type A or D. This includes a large family of Shimura varieties of abelian type. Our considerations and constructions are carried out purely at the level of Shimura data and group theory.


In this paper the authors study the complex conjugation acting on Shimura varieties. Let $\text{Sh}(G,X)$ be a Shimura variety defined by a Shimura datum $(G,X)$, and $c$ the complex conjugate. It is known that the conjugate variety $c\text{Sh}(G,X)$ is a Shimura variety of the form $\text{Sh}(G,\overline{X})$, where $\overline{X}$ is obtained by composing the elements of $x$ with complex conjugation on the Deligne torus. Under some natural extra conditions, the reflex field $E$ is either totally real or CM field, and the Shimura variety has a canonical model $\text{Sh}(G,X)_{E}$ over $E$. Suppose $E$ is a CM field, and let $E^{+}$ be the maximal totally real subfield of $E$. The aim of this paper is to investigate the descent of $\text{Sh}(G,X)_{E}$ to $E^{+}$. The authors show (Th.~2.3.1) that if $\theta: G\to G$ is an involution such that $\theta(X)=\overline{X}$, $\theta$ leads to a descent datum from $E$ to $E^{+}$, and we obtain a model of $\text{Sh}(G,X)$ over~$E^{+}$. The authors then construct involutions $\theta$ on $G$ that induces the opposition involution on the Dynkin diagram. If an involution $\theta:G\to G$ admits a pair $(T,x)$ consisting of a maximal torus $T$ of $G$ and a point $x\in X$ factoring through $T_{\mathbb{R}}$ such that $\theta$ preserve $T$ and induces $c_{T_{\mathbb{R}}}$ on $T_{\mathbb{R}}$, then $\theta^{\text{der}}$ is an opposite involution on $G^{\text{der}}$. Based on this observation, they construct an involution $\theta$ satisfying $\theta(X)=\overline{X}$ by extending an opposition involution on $G^{\text{ad}}$ (Prop.~3.4.8). In \S~4, they explicitly construct such involutions $\theta$ on those groups $G$ for which their simple factors of $G^{\text{ad}}$ are of type $A$ and $D^{\mathbb{H}}$. As a consequence, they prove (Th.~5.2.2) the existence of descent datum for such $(G,X)$. This covers a large family of Shimura varieties of abelian type. The constructions in this paper are carried out purely on the level of Shimura data and group theory.











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