The de Rham cohomology of covers with cyclic $p$-Sylow subgroup

Abstract

Let $X$ be a smooth projective curve over a field $k$ with an action of a finite group $G$. A well-known result of Chevalley and Weil describes the $k[G]$-module structure of cohomologies of $X$ in the case when the characteristic of $k$ does not divide $\# G$. It is unlikely that such a formula can be derived in the general case, since the representation theory of groups with non-cyclic $p$-Sylow subgroups is wild in characteristic $p$. The goal of this article is to show that when $G$ has a cyclic $p$-Sylow subgroup, the $G$-structure of the de Rham cohomology of $X$ is completely determined by the ramification data. In principle, this leads to new formulas in the spirit of Chevalley and Weil for such curves. We provide such an explicit description of the de Rham cohomology in the cases when $G = \mathbb Z/p^n$ and when the $p$-Sylow subgroup of $G$ is normal of order $p$.