Siegel modular forms of degree three and the cohomology of local systems (Q2436522)

Let \(\mathcal A_g\) denote the Deligne-Mumford stack over \(\operatorname {Spec} \mathbb Z\) of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension \(g\). For each irreducible representation of \(\mathrm{GSp}_{2g}\) of highest weight \(\lambda\), there is a local system \(\mathbb V_\lambda\) on \(\mathcal A_g\); in this way the dual of the standard representation of \(\mathrm{GSp}_{2g}\) corresponds to \(R^1\pi_* \mathbb Q\), where \(\pi:\mathcal X_g \to \mathcal A_g\) denotes the universal object. The organizing principle of this paper is a conjectural formula for the motivic Euler characteristic \(e_c\) of \(\mathbb V_\lambda\), of the form \[ e_c(\mathcal A_g, \mathbb V_\lambda) := \sum (-1)^i [H_c^i(\mathcal A_g, \mathbb V_\lambda)] = (-1)^{g(g+1)/2} S[n(\lambda)] + e_{g,\text{extra}}(\lambda). \] Here \(n(\lambda)\) is an explicit tuple depending on \(\lambda\); \(S[n(\lambda)]\) is a conjectural element in the Grothendieck group of motives; and \(e_{g,\text{extra}}(\lambda)\) is a correction term. When \(g = 1\), the conjecture is a theorem encoding celebrated work of Eichler-Shimura and Deligne; in this case \(S[n(k)] = S[k+2]\) is a motive associated by \textit{A. J. Scholl} [Invent. Math. 100, No. 2, 419--430 (1990; Zbl 0760.14002)] to the space \(S_{k+2}\) of cusp forms of weight \(k+2\), and \(e_{1,\text{extra}}(\lambda) = -1\) is the contribution from Eisenstein series. The conjecture for general \(g\) is inspired by the extension of \textit{G. Faltings} and \textit{C.-L. Chai} [Degeneration of abelian varieties. Berlin etc.: Springer-Verlag (1990; Zbl 0744.14031)] of Eichler and Shimura's work to a relationship between the space \(S_{n(\lambda)}\) of Siegel modular cusp forms of degree \(g\) and weight \(n(\lambda)\), and the cohomology of \(\mathbb V_\lambda\) on \(\mathcal A_g\). The authors expect \(S[n(\lambda)]\) to be associated to \(S_{n(\lambda)}\) in a way similar to the case \(g = 1\). In previous work [C. R., Math., Acad. Sci. Paris 338, No. 5, 381--384 (2004; Zbl 1062.14034)]; ibid. 338, No. 6, 467--470 (2004; Zbl 1055.14026)], the second and third authors formulated a precise conjecture for \(e_{2,\text{extra}}(\lambda)\). The main aim of the paper under review is to give an explicit conjectural formula (Conjecture 7.1) for \(e_{3,\text{extra}}(\lambda)\), in terms of Euler characteristics of the \(\mathbb V_\lambda\) in genera \(1\) and \(2\). The conjecture is based, à la Weil, on some extensive point counting calculations on \(\mathcal A_g\) with values in a finite field, as well as a formula for the rank \(1\) part of the Eisenstein cohomology. This leads the authors to further conjectures on vector-valued Siegel modular forms of degree \(3\), such as dimension formulas and traces of Hecke operators. It also leads to conjectures on lifts from genus \(1\) to genus \(3\), as well as lifts from \(\mathrm G_2\) and new congruences of Harder type.