Moduli spaces of shtukas over the projective line (Q2086412)

Shtukas were introduced by Drinfeld in the 1970's in a series of papers proving the Langlands correspondence for GL(2) over a function field \(F\) of a smooth projective geometrically irreducible curve \(X\) over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\). These papers are based on the study of the cohomology of moduli spaces of rank two shtukas. This method was extended by L. Lafforgue to prove the Langlands correspondence for GL(\(r\)) over \(F\). The well-written introduction to the present paper starts with a definition of a shtuka of rank \(r\) over a scheme \(S\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\), the notion of isomorphism of two shtukas of rank \(r\), and the stack \(\mathrm{Sht}^r= \mathrm{Sht}^r_X\) of shtukas of rank \(r\). Drinfeld proved that \(\mathrm{Sht}^r\) is an algebraic Deligne-Mumford stack, and the map \((P,Q): \mathrm{Sht}^r\to X\times X\) sending a shtuka to its pole and zero is smooth of relative dimension \(2r-2\). Moreover, \(\mathrm{Sht}^r\) is locally of finite type. Denote by \(\mathrm{Sht}^r_{P,Q}\) the fiber over \((P,Q)\). The stack \(\mathrm{Sht}^r\) is a disjoint union over \(d\in\mathbb{Z}\) of connected components \(\mathrm{Sht}^{r,d}\), defined by the degree \(d\) of the vector bundle in the shtuka. Next, for a finite subscheme \(N\) of \(X\) a level structure of a suitable shtuka of rank \(r\) is defined. The stack of shtukas of rank \(r\) with level structure on \(N\) is introduced and denoted by \(\mathrm{Sht}^r(N)\). Drinfeld proved that the forgetful morphism \(\mathrm{Sht}^r(N)\to \mathrm{Sht}^r\times_{X^2}(X-N)^2\) is representable, finite, étale and Galois with Galois group \(\mathrm{GL}(r,\mathcal O_N)\). The paper under review concerns only shtukas of rank two. It uses the phrase ``\(\Gamma(N)\) level structure'' to refer to a level structure on \(N\), and uses \(\mathrm{Sht}^2(\Gamma(N))\) to denote \(\mathrm{Sht}^r(N)\). It introduces two new notions of level structure: ``\(\Gamma_1(N)\) level structure'', and ``\(\Gamma_0(N)\) level structure'', and the associated stacks \(\mathrm{Sht}^2(\Gamma_1(N))\) and \(\mathrm{Sht}^2(\Gamma_0(N))\). Its main goal is to derive explicit equations for moduli spaces of shtukas of rank two over the base curve \(X=\mathbb{P}^1\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\), with these level structures. By deriving explicit equations for the fibers of substacks \(\mathrm{Sht}^{2,\mathrm{tr}}(\Gamma)\), the paper asserts: Theorem 1.6. Let \(N\) be an effective divisor on \(\mathbb{P}^1\) supported on points of degree 1. Let \(P\), \(Q\) be disjoint points of \(\mathbb{P}^1-N\). Then up to birational equivalence we have: (1) If \(\mathrm{N}=1\) then \(\mathrm{Sht}^{2,\mathrm{tr}}_{P,Q}(\Gamma(N))\) is a rational surface. (2) If \(\mathrm{N}=2\) then \(\mathrm{Sht}^{2,\mathrm{tr}}_{P,Q}(\Gamma_1(N))\) is a rational surface. (3) If \(\mathrm{N}=3\) then \(\mathrm{Sht}^{2,\mathrm{tr}}_{P,Q}(\Gamma_0(N))\) is a rational surface. (4) If \(\mathrm{N}=4\) then \(\mathrm{Sht}^{2,\mathrm{tr}}_{P,Q}(\Gamma_0(N))\) is an elliptic surface. In the last section some expectations and questions in this area, including a modularity conjecture for elliptic curves over function fields involving the moduli stack of shtukas with \(\Gamma_0(N)\) level structure, are described.