Weil representations associated to isocrystals over function fields

Abstract

Every Anderson $A$-motive $M$ over a field determines a compatible system of Galois representations on its Tate modules at almost all primes of $A$. This adapts easily to $F$-isocrystals, which are rational analogues of $A$-motives for the global function field $F:=\operatorname{Quot}(A)$. We extend this compatible system by constructing a Weil group representation associated to $M$ for every place of $F$. To this end we generalize the Tate module construction to a tensor functor on $F_{\mathfrak{p}}$-isocrystals that are not necessarily pure. To prove that this yields a compatible system, we work out how that construction behaves under reduction of $M$. As an offshoot we obtain a new kind of $\wp$-adic Weil representations associated to Drinfeld modules of special characteristic $\wp$.