Galois representations attached to tensor products of arithmetic cohomology (Q306526)

The main result in this paper is that, given Galois representations of the absolute Galois group over \(\mathbb{Q}\), either over a finite field of sufficiently high characteristic \(p\), or over a \(p\)-adic field, which are attached to cohomology classes of some lower congruence subgroups of \(\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{Z})\) for trivial coefficients, then the sum of appropriate twists of these Galois representations is attached to the tensor product cohomology class of a lower congruence subgroup. This sheds some light on the structure of the relation, proved by \textit{P. Scholze} [Ann. Math. (2) 182, No. 3, 945--1066 (2015; Zbl 1345.14031)], between Galois representations over a finite field and Hecke eigenclasses in cohomology of congruence subgroups of \(\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{Z})\). The result is consistent with the conjectures of the first author et al. [Duke Math. J. 112, No. 3, 521--579 (2002; Zbl 1023.11025)], although the techniques of this paper do not prove cases of the conjectures as they are more specific regarding the congruence subgroups that appear. The proof is based on the construction of tensor product cohomology classes by \textit{A. Ash} [J. Algebra 167, No. 2, 330--342 (1994; Zbl 0807.11030)] and the computation of the Hecke action, the Borel-Serre duality, which relates the cohomology of a congruence subgroup with trivial coefficients to the homology of the Steinberg module, and thus to sharbly and cosharbly complexes [the first author et al., J. Algebra 349, No. 1, 380--390 (2012; Zbl 1294.11077)], which provide a resolution of the Steinberg module. To state the results more precisely, some more notation is needed. Let \(p\) be a prime number, and let \(K\) be either a finite field of characteristic \(p\), or a finite extension of \(\mathbb{Q}_p\). For a congruence subgroup \(\Gamma\) of \(\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{Z})\), let \(K\mathcal{H}_\Gamma\) be the Hecke algebra of \(\Gamma\), that is, a commutative \(K\)-algebra under convolution, generated by all double cosets \(T_{\ell,k}=\Gamma D_{\ell,k}\Gamma\), where \(\ell\) is a prime not dividing \(N\), \(0\leq k\leq n\), and \(D_{\ell,k}\) is the diagonal \(n\times n\) matrix \(D_{\ell,k}=\mathrm{diag} (1,\dots ,1,\ell,\dots ,\ell)\) with \(1\) appearing \(n-k\) times and \(\ell\) appearing \(k\) times. Let \(\phi\) be a Hecke \(K\)-packet of the Hecke algebra \(K\mathcal{H}_\Gamma\), that is, any of its \(K\)-algebra homomorphisms to \(K\). The Hecke polynomial associated to \(\phi\) at a prime \(\ell\) not dividing \(N\) is defined as \[ F_{\phi,\ell}(X)=\sum_{k=0}^n (-1)^k \ell^{k(k-1)/2}\phi(T_{\ell,k})X^k. \] Let \(\rho\) be a continuous \(n\)-dimensional representation of the absolute Galois group \(G_\mathbb{Q}\) of \(\mathbb{Q}\) in a vector space over \(K\). By definition, the Galois representation \(\rho\) is attached to a Hecke \(K\)-packet \(\phi\) if, for some \(M\geq 1\), \(\rho\) is unramified outside \(MN\), and \[ \det (I-\rho(\mathrm{Frob}_\ell)X)=F_{\phi,\ell}(X), \] for all \(\ell\) not dividing \(MN\). Here \(\mathrm{Frob}_\ell\) is the arithmetic Frobenius. In this sense, a Galois representation is attached to an eigenclass for Hecke operators acting on the cohomology of arithmetic (congruence) subgroups of \(\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{Z})\). The main result is the following. Given a collection \(\rho_i\), for \(i=1,\dots ,t\), of continuous \(n_i\)-dimensional Galois representations of \(G_\mathbb{Q}\) over \(K\), attached in the above sense to a Hecke eigenclass \(f_i\) in the cohomology of a lower congruence subgroup \(\Delta_i\) of \(\mathrm{SL}(n_i,\mathbb{Z})\) with trivial coefficients, one may construct a lower congruence subgroup \(\Delta_0\) of \(\mathrm{SL}(n_1+\dots +n_t,\mathbb{Z})\), and a Hecke eigenclass \(h\) in the cohomology of \(\Delta_0\) with trivial coefficients, such that the Galois representation \[ \rho_1\oplus\omega^{n_1}\rho_2\oplus \dots\oplus\omega^{n_1+\dots +n_{t-1}}\rho_t \] is attached to \(h\). Here \(\omega\) is either the \(p\)-adic, or mod \(p\) cyclotomic character.