Liftings of projective 2-dimensional Galois representations and embedding problems (Q1346101)

Let \(\varrho: G_k\to \text{PGL}_2 (F)\) be a projective representation of the absolute Galois group \(G_k\) of the field \(k\). Assume \(\text{char} (k)\neq 2\). A lifting of \(\varrho\) is a linear representation \(\rho: G_k\to \text{GL}_2 (F)\) which induces \(\varrho\). Let \(K/k\), \(E/k\) and \(L/k\) be the fixed fields of \(\varrho\), \(\rho\) and \(\text{det }\rho: G_k\to F^*\). Then the degree of the cyclic extension \(L/K\) is called the index of the lifting. In this paper, certain obstructions of liftings of index 2 and with image isomorphic to one of the groups \(\text{PSL} (2, q)\) or \(\text{PGL} (2, q)\) with \(q\equiv \pm 3\bmod 8\) or \(q= 7, 9\) are computed. These obstructions are related to solutions of certain embedding problems. The author first elaborates some group theoretical background and calculates the corresponding group extensions. Then the obstruction of several embedding problems are calculated with the help of Serre's trace formula. If \(K= \mathbb{Q}\), by local considerations we get results of the following kind: There is a number \(\mu (\varrho)\) (explicitly defined in the paper) such that there exists a lifting with index \(2^r\) if and only if \(r> \mu (\varrho)\). Finally some numerical examples are given.