Independence of l in Lafforgue's theorem

CheeWhye Chin

Published 2002-06-02, updated 2002-06-25Version 2

Let X be a smooth curve over a finite field of characteristic p, let l be a prime number different from p, and let L be an irreducible lisse l-adic sheaf on X whose determinant is of finite order. By a theorem of Lafforgue, for each prime number l' different from p, there exists an irreducible lisse l'-adic sheaf L' on X which is compatible with L, in the sense that at every closed point x of X, the characteristic polynomials of Frobenius at x for L and L' are equal. We prove an "independence of l" assertion on the fields of definition of these irreducible l'-adic sheaves L' : namely, that there exists a number field F such that for any prime number l' different from p, the l'-adic sheaf L' above is defined over the completion of F at one of its l'-adic places.