Remarks on Serre's modularity conjecture (Q451992)

Let \(\rho\) be an irreducible odd two-dimensional representation of the absolute Galois group of \(\mathbb Q\). The author gives a new proof for the modularity of \(\rho\) in the case of odd level (in the sense of Serre). To that end he uses parts of the machinery of Khare and Wintenberger, some of which was established by the author himself. But instead of reducing the weight as in their proof he step by step reduces the level (kills ramification) until he ends up in a situation where Serre's conjecture already is known to be valid. The main technique is called ``propagation'' and comes from ``switching the residual characteristic''. A central tool are modularity lifting results by \textit{M. Kisin} [J.\ Am.\ Math.\ Soc.\ 22, No.\ 3, 641--690 (2009; Zbl 1251.11045)]. The author notes that these results were obtained between March and May 2006.