Rigid local systems and alternating groups (Q1728135)

In an earlier work of 2018 N.~Katz exhibits some very simple one-parameter families of exponential sums which give rigid local systems on the affine line in characteristic \(p\) whose geometric (and usually, arithmetic) monodromy groups are \(\mathrm{SL}_2(q)\), and he exhibits other such very simple families giving \(\mathrm{SU}_3(q)\). (Here \(q\) is a power of the characteristic \(p\), and \(p\) is odd.) In this paper, the authors exhibit equally simple families whose geometric monodromy groups are the alternating groups \(\mathrm{Alt}(2q)\). They also determine their arithmetic monodromy groups. Using some basic information about the local systems, the first and third authors prove a fundamental dichotomy: the geometric monodromy group is either \(\mathrm{Alt}(2q)\) or it is the special orthogonal group \(\mathrm{SO}(2q-1)\). The second author uses an elementary polynomial identity to compute the third moment as being \(1\) which rules out the \(\mathrm{SO}(2q-1)\) case.