Let $X$ be a smooth, projective, geometrically connected curve over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, and let $G$ be a split semisimple algebraic group over $\mathbb{F}_q$. Its dual group $\widehat{G}$ is a split reductive group over $\mathbb{Z}$. Conjecturally, any $l$-adic $\widehat{G}$-local system on $X$ (equivalently, any conjugacy class of continuous homomorphisms $\pi_1(X) \to \widehat{G}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}_l)$) should be associated with an everywhere unramified automorphic representation of the group $G$.

We show that for any homomorphism $\pi_1(X) \to \widehat{G}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}_l)$ of Zariski dense image, there exists a finite Galois cover $Y \to X$ over which the associated local system becomes automorphic.

We prove that for every non-negative integer $g$, there exists a bound on the number of ends of a complete, embedded minimal surface $M$ in $\mathbb{R}^3$ of genus $g$ and finite topology. This bound on the finite number of ends when $M$ has at least two ends implies that $M$ has finite stability index which is bounded by a constant that only depends on its genus.

We prove that every lattice in a product of higher-rank simple Lie groups or higher-rank simple algebraic groups over local fields has Vincent Lafforgue’s strong property $(T)$. Over non-Archimedean local fields, we also prove that they have strong Banach property $(T)$ with respect to all Banach spaces with non-trivial type, whereas in general we obtain such a result with additional hypotheses on the Banach spaces. The novelty is that we deal with non-co-compact lattices, such as $\mathop{\rm SL}_n(\mathbf{Z})$ for $n \geqslant 3$. To do so, we introduce a stronger form of strong property $(T)$ which allows us to deal with more general objects than group representations on Banach spaces that we call two-step representations, namely families indexed by a group of operators between different Banach spaces that we can compose only once. We prove that higher-rank groups have this property and that this property passes to undistorted lattices.