Elevators for degenerations of PEL structures (Q2428822)

The author considers a canonical model \(S\) of a Shimura variety of PEL-type. A degeneration over a discrete valuation ring \(R\) based at \(S\) is a semi-abelian scheme \(A \to \text{Spec} (R)\) which, after passage to the field of fractions of \(R\), is the pullback of the universal abelian scheme over \(S\), via a morphism \(\text{Spec}(\text{Frac}(R)) \to S\). The {\textit{rank}} of the degeneration is the rank of the special fiber. For any characteristic \(p \geq 0\) the invariant \(r_p\) is defined to be the maximal rank among degenerations over discrete valuation rings \(R\) based at \(S\) with residue characteristic \(p\). This invariant can be calculated explicity when \(p = 0\). The main theorem of the paper states that \(r_0 = r_p\) for every \(p \geq 0\). As a corollary, the author proves a conjecture of \textit{Y. Morita} [J. Fac. Sci., Univ. Tokyo, Sect. I A 22, 437--447 (1975; Zbl 0322.14015)] that an abelian variety with PEL-structure has potential good reduction everywhere if the Shimura variety associated to the PEL-structure is compact.