On the cohomology groups of local systems over Hilbert modular varieties via Higgs bundles

Abstract

Let $X$ be a Hilbert modular variety and $\mathbb{V}$ a non-trivial local system over $X$ with infinite monodromy. In this paper we study Saito's mixed Hodge structure (MHS) on the cohomology group $H^k(X,\mathbb{V})$ using the method of Higgs bundles. Among other results we prove the Eichler-Shimura isomorphism, give a dimension formula for the Hodge numbers and show that the mixed Hodge structure is split over $\mathbb{R}$. These results are analogous to Matsushima-Shimura [Annals of Mathematics 78, 1963] in the cocompact case and complement the results in Freitag [Book: Hilbert modular forms, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1990] for constant coefficients.