On supersingular loci of Shimura varieties for quaternionic unitary groups of degree 2 (Q2066294)

In the paper under review, the author describes the supersingular locus of a reduction modulo an odd prime \(p\) of a Shimura variety associated to a quaternion unitary similitude group of degree \(2\). This contributes the geometry and arithmetic of the basic locus of Shimura varieties that has been studied by several people, notably Katsura-Oort, Li-Oort and Vollaard-Wedhorn. More precisely, consider an integral PEL-datum \(({\mathbf D}, *, O_{\mathbf D}, V,\psi, \Lambda, h_0)\), where \begin{itemize} \item \({\mathbf D}\) is an indefinite quaternion \(\mathbb Q\)-algebra with positive involution \(*\) such that \(p\) is ramified in \({\mathbf D}\); \item \(O_{\mathbf D}\) is an order in \({\mathbf D}\) stable under \(*\) such that \(O_{\mathbf D}\otimes {\mathbb Z}_p\) is a maximal order in \({\mathbf D}_p={\mathbf D}\otimes {\mathbb Q}_p\); \item \(V\) is a finite free \({\mathbf D}\)-module of rank \(2\); \item \(\psi:V\times V\to {\mathbb Q}\) is a non-degenerate alternating pairing satisfying \(\psi(bx,y)=\psi(x,b^*y)\) for \(b\in {\mathbf D}\) and \(x,y\in V\); \item \(\Lambda\) is an \(O_\mathbf{D}\)-lattice in \(V\) such that \(\Lambda \otimes \mathbb{Z}_p\) is self-dual with respect to \(\psi\); \item \(h_0:\mathbb C\to \mathrm{End}_{{\mathbb D}\otimes {\mathbb R}} (V_{\mathbb R})\) is an \(\mathbb{R}\otimes \mathbf{D}\)-linear algebra homomorphism such that the symmetric form \(\psi(h_0(i) x, y)\) is definite. \end{itemize} To this datum, one associates a Shimura variety \(\mathrm{Sh}_{K}(G,X)\) and constructs its integral model \(\mathbf{S}_{K}\) over \(\mathbb Z_{(p)}\) following [\textit{M. Rapoport} and \textit{Th. Zink}, Period spaces for \(p\)-divisible groups. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press (1996; Zbl 0873.14039)], where \(K=K_p K^p\), \(K_p=G(\mathbb Z_p)\) and \(K^p\subset G(\mathbb A_f^p)\) is a sufficiently small open compact subgroup. One of the main theorems is as follows: \textbf{Theorem 1.4} \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] The scheme \(\mathbf{S}_{K,W}:= \mathbf{S}_K \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}_p} W\) is regular and flat over \(W\) of relative dimension \(3\), where \(W\) is the ring of Witt vectors over \(\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p\). Moreover, the singular locus of the special fiber consists of finitely many points. \item[(ii)] The supersingular locus \(\mathbf{S}_{K,{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}^{\mathrm{ss}} \subset \mathbf{S}_{K,{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}\) is purely 2-dimensional. Every irreducible component is projective and birational to the Fermat surface in \(\mathbf{P}_{{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}^3\) defined by \[ x^{p+1}_0 + x^{p+1}_1 + x^{p+1}_2 + x^{p+1}_3= 0. \] \item[(iii)] Let \(F\) be an irreducible component of \(\mathbf{S}_{K,{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}^{\mathrm{ss}}\). Then the following hold: \begin{itemize} \item There are at most \((p + 1)(p^2 + 1)\)-irreducible components of \(\mathbf{S}_{K,{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}^{\mathrm{ss}}\) whose intersections with \(F\) are birational to \(\mathbf{P}^1_{{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}\). Here we endow the intersections with reduced structures. \item There are at most \((p + 1)(p^2 + 1)\) irreducible components of \(\mathbf{S}_{K,{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}^{\mathrm{ss}}\) which intersect \(F\) at a single \({\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}\)-rational point. \item Other irreducible components of \(\mathbf{S}_{K,{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}^{\mathrm{ss}}\) do not intersect \(F\). \end{itemize} \item[(iv)] Each singular point in \(\mathbf{S}_{K,{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}^{\mathrm{ss}}\) is contained in at most \(2(p + 1)\) irreducible components. \item[(v)] Each irreducible component of \(\mathbf{S}_{K,{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}^{\mathrm{ss}}\) contains at most \((p+1)(p^2 + 1)\) singular points. \end{itemize} The global result above follows from more explicit local results which describe the Rapoport-Zink space associated to the local PEL-datum in question (Theorem 1.1). Using local models, the singularity of \(\mathbf{S}_{K,W}\) is shown to be smoothly equivalent to that of the Siegel modular 3-fold with paramodular level at \(p\) and the latter was computed by \textit{C.-F. Yu} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 139, No. 9, 3181--3190 (2011; Zbl 1236.14030)]. The author obtains the same result (Theorem 4.1) using a different approach. The local and global results are also obtained independently by \textit{H. Wang} [Math. Ann. 376, No. 3--4, 1107--1144 (2020; Zbl 1454.11117)]. Note the singular locus of \(\mathbf{S}_{K,{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}}\) consists of points whose Lie algebra is annihilated by the uniformizer of \(\mathbf{D}_p\). This is the smallest Lie stratum introduced and studied by \textit{C.-F. Yu} [Ann. Inst. Fourier 53, No. 7, 2105--2154 (2003; Zbl 1117.14027)] and by \textit{C.-F. Yu} et al. [Taiwanese J. Math. 24, No. 6, 1307--1352 (2020; Zbl 1477.14043)] in the setting of Hilbert-Blumenthal moduli spaces. As another application, the author computes the local intersection multiplicity of the GGP cycles associated to an embedding of the present Rapoport-Zink space into the Rapoport-Zink space for the unramified \(\mathrm{GU}_{2,2}\) with hyperspecial level. The paper is well-written.