Lifting Subgroups of Symplectic Groups over $\mathbb{Z} / \ell   \mathbb{Z}$
  For a positive integer $g$, let $\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(R)$ denote the group of $2g \times 2g$ symplectic matrices over a ring $R$. Assume $g \ge 2$. For a prime number $\ell$, we give a self-contained proof that any closed subgroup of $\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(\mathbb{Z}_\ell)$ which surjects onto $\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(\mathbb{Z}/\ell\mathbb{Z})$ must in fact equal all of $\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(\mathbb{Z}_\ell)$. The result and the method of proof are both motivated by group-theoretic considerations that arise in the study of Galois representations associated to abelian varieties. 
Aaron Landesman, Ashvin Swaminathan, James Tao, and Yujie Xu
math.GR math.NT math.RT