\(L\)-functions and monodromy: four lectures on Weil II (Q5940001)

The author concludes his introduction to this version of four lectures he gave at the Arizona Winter School 2000 with the words \textit{``caveat emptor''}; but no such disclaimer is necessary, for it offers a clear and valuable introduction to the deep and beautiful ideas to be found in Deligne's work on the Weil conjectures, concerning the number of solutions of equations over finite fields and the Riemann hypothesis for projective varieties over finite fields. The lectures cover the ideas in Deligne's papers [\textit{P. Deligne}, La conjecture de Weil I, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 43, 273--307 (1973; Zbl 0287.14001) and La conjecture de Weil II, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 52, 137--252 (1980; Zbl 0456.14014)] which the author refers to as Weil I and Weil II, together with other related work, such as Laumon's simplification, based on Fourier transform methods, of Deligne's proof of Weil II. One particularly appealing insight is afforded by the author's comment on Deligne's `stunning transposition to the function field case' of the method of `squaring' due to Rankin and to be found in his paper on Ramanujan's \(\tau(n)\) function [\textit{R. A. Rankin}, Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 35, 357--372 (1939; Zbl 0021.39202)]. -- The underlying idea is to put the \(L\)-functions, whose Weil II estimate is required, into a family of \(L\)-functions having `big monodromy' and then to ap ply the Rankin squaring method to that family. One then obtains a proof of the Weil II result in the style of Weil I. In the first lecture, the author reviews the necessary background from the theory of \(l\)-adic sheaves and \(l\)-adic cohomology and which includes the definition of the \(L\)-function of a constructible \(\overline\mathbb{Q}_l\)-sheaf on a scheme \(X/k\) of finite type (those and later definitions and concepts are clearly explained). The lecture concludes with a formulation of and preliminaries concerning the proof of the target theorem, which is fundamental in what follows and which concerns the structure of \(H^1_c(U\otimes_k\overline k,{\mathfrak F})\), where \(U/k\) is a smooth curve over a finite field, \(l\) is a prime invertible in \(k\) and \({\mathfrak F}\) is a `lisse' \(\overline\mathbb{Q}_l\)-sheaf on \(U\) of weight \(w\). One proves that \(H^1_c(U\times_k\overline k,{\mathfrak F})\) is of weight \(\leq w+1\). Lecture II proves the target theorem in a special case. Lecture III continues the theme of the proof of the target theorem and relates it to the proof of the monodromy theorem and the application of Rankin's method. The proof of the monodromy theorem and the appeal to Rankin's method are then completed in Lecture IV, as is the proof of the target theorem and its applications. The lecture concludes with proofs of Weil I and Weil II and with a nice deduction of the Ramanujan conjecture, derived from Sato's idea that `Weil implies Ramanujan'. The reviewer found the exposition helpful and stimulating and attractive -- so that one gains understanding and is led to a desire to learn more. The author has succeeded admirably in fulfilling his objectives.