Frobenius trace fields of cohomologically rigid local systems

Abstract: Let $X/\mathbb{C}$ be a smooth variety with simple normal crossings compactification $\bar{X}$, and let $L$ be an irreducible $\overline{\mathbb{Q}}_{\ell}$-local system on $X$ with torsion determinant. Suppose $L$ is cohomologically rigid. The pair $(X, L)$ may be spread out to a finitely generated base, and therefore reduced modulo $p$ for almost all $p$; the Frobenius traces of this mod $p$ reduction lie in a number field $F_p$, by a theorem of Deligne. We investigate to what extent the fields $F_p$ are bounded, meaning that they are contained in a fixed number field, independent of $p$. We prove a host of results around this question. For instance: assuming $L$ has totally degenerate unipotent monodromy around some component of $Z$, then we prove that $L$ admits a spreading out such that the $F_p$'s are bounded; without any local monodromy assumptions, we show that the $F_p$'s are bounded as soon as they are bounded at one point of $X$. We also speculate on the relation between the boundedness of the $F_p$'s, and the local system $L$ being strongly of geometric origin, a notion due to Langer-Simpson.