The cohomology of semi-infinite Deligne--Lusztig varieties

TL;DR

This paper proves longstanding conjectures about the cohomology of semi-infinite Deligne--Lusztig varieties linked to division algebras, revealing their geometric and representation-theoretic properties and providing a complete homology description.

Contribution

It confirms Lusztig's conjecture and Boyarchenko's conjectures on these varieties, establishing their cohomological purity, irreducible torus-eigenspaces, and geometric realization of supercuspidal representations.

Findings

Number of rational points attains Weil--Deligne bound

Cohomology is pure and supported in one degree

Homology groups give geometric realization of supercuspidal representations

Abstract

We prove a 1979 conjecture of Lusztig on the cohomology of semi-infinite Deligne--Lusztig varieties attached to division algebras over local fields. We also prove the two conjectures of Boyarchenko on these varieties. It is known that in this setting, the semi-infinite Deligne--Lusztig varieties are ind-schemes comprised of limits of certain finite-type schemes $X_h$. Boyarchenko's two conjectures are on the maximality of $X_h$ and on the behavior of the torus-eigenspaces of their cohomology. Both of these conjectures were known in full generality only for division algebras with Hasse invariant $1/n$ in the case $h = 2$ (the "lowest level") by the work of Boyarchenko--Weinstein on the cohomology of a special affinoid in the Lubin--Tate tower. We prove that the number of rational points of $X_h$ attains its Weil--Deligne bound, so that the cohomology of $X_h$ is pure in a very strong sense. We prove that the torus-eigenspaces of $H_c^i(X_h)$ are irreducible representations and are supported in exactly one cohomological degree. Finally, we give a complete description of the homology groups of the semi-infinite Deligne--Lusztig varieties attached to any division algebra, thus giving a geometric realization of the unramified supercuspidal representations of these groups. We expect that the techniques developed in this paper will be useful in studying these constructions for reductive groups over local fields in general.