Euler factors determine local Weil representations

Abstract

We show that a Frobenius-semisimple Weil representation over a local field K is determined by its Euler factors over the extensions of K. The construction is explicit, and we illustrate it for l-adic representations attached to elliptic and genus 2 curves. As an application, we construct an absolutely simple 2-dimensional abelian variety over Q all of whose quadratic twists must have positive rank, according to the Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.