Shimura varieties at level ${\Gamma }_1(p^{\infty })$ and Galois representations

Abstract

We show that the compactly supported cohomology of certain $\mathrm{U}(n,n)$ or $\mathrm{Sp}(2n)$-Shimura varieties with ${\Gamma }_1(p^{\infty })$-level vanishes above the middle degree. The only assumption is that we work over a CM field $F$ in which the prime $p$ splits completely. We also give an application to Galois representations for torsion in the cohomology of the locally symmetric spaces for ${\mathrm{GL}}_n/F$. More precisely, we use the vanishing result for Shimura varieties to eliminate the nilpotent ideal in the construction of these Galois representations. This strengthens recent results of Scholze and Newton-Thorne.

v2: major revision to improve exposition, results are the same