Tate module tensor decompositions and the Sato-Tate conjecture for certain abelian varieties potentially of \(\mathrm{GL}_2\)-type (Q2114178)

This paper deals with geometrically isotypic abelian varieties over a number field, i.e., abelian varieties \(A_0/k_0\) a number field such that \(A/\overline{\mathbb Q}\) is isogenous to \(B^d\) for \(B\) a simple abelian variety. The first main theorem proves that the rational \(\ell\)-adic Tate module \(V_\ell(A_0)\) is (the induction of) a direct sum of tensor products of an Artin representation with a system of \(\ell\)-adic representations. Such a decomposition was known previously when \(B\) is an elliptic curve or when \(A_0\) is an abelian surface with quaternionic multiplication. The second main theorem concerns the Sato-Tate conjecture for abelian varieties. This conjecture is an equidistribution statement for the action of the Frobenius on \(V_\ell(A_0)\) and is known for elliptic curves over totally real fields with multiplicative reduction at some place. There has also been much recent work on Sato-Tate for abelian surfaces. The current paper determines the Sato-Tate group and proves the conjecture for \(A_0/k_0\) as above with \(k_0\) a totally real number field, \(B\) such that the center of its endomorphism ring is a number field of degree at most \(2\) and some technical conditions coming from the tensor product description of the first main theorem. For non-CM modular abelian varieties of \(\mathrm{GL}_2\) type, these technical conditions are automatically satisfied.