Higher finiteness properties of reductive arithmetic groups in positive characteristic: the rank theorem

Abstract

We show that the finiteness length of an $S$-arithmetic subgroup $Γ$ in a noncommutative isotropic absolutely almost simple group $G$ over a global function field is one less than the sum of the local ranks of $G$ taken over the places in $S$. This determines the finiteness properties for arithmetic subgroups in isotropic reductive groups, confirming the conjectured finiteness properties for this class of groups. Our main tool is Behr-Harder reduction theory which we recast in terms of the metric structure of euclidean buildings.