The Taylor-Wiles method for reductive groups

Abstract

We construct a local deformation problem for residual Galois representations $\bar{\rho}$ valued in an arbitrary reductive group $\hat{G}$ which we use to develop a variant of the Taylor-Wiles method. Our generalization allows Taylor-Wiles places for which the image of Frobenius is semisimple, a weakening of the regular semisimple constraint imposed previously in the literature. We introduce the notion of $\hat{G}$-adequate subgroup, our corresponding 'big image' condition. When $\hat{G}$ is a simply connected simple group of type $\mathrm{C}$ or of exceptional type and $\hat{G} \to \mathrm{GL}_n$ is a faithful irreducible representation of minimal dimension, we show that a subgroup is $\hat{G}$-adequate if it is $\mathrm{GL}_n$-irreducible and the residue characteristic is sufficiently large. We apply our ideas to the case $\hat{G} = \mathrm{GSp}_4$ and prove a modularity lifting theorem for abelian surfaces over a totally real field $F$ which holds under weaker hypotheses than in the work of Boxer-Calegari-Gee-Pilloni. We deduce some modularity results for elliptic curves over quadratic extensions of $F$.