TITLE: Galois action on $p$-adic Tate module of Abelian variety over finite field semisimple?
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: Let $A,B$ be positive dimensional Abelian varieties over a finite field and $p$ be an arbritrary prime. By Zarhin, Homomorphisms of abelian varieties over finite fields http://www.math.nyu.edu/~tschinke/books/finite-fields/final/10_zarhin.pdf, Theorem 10.2, one has an isomorphism $$\mathrm{Hom}(A,B) \otimes \mathbf{Z}_p \to \mathrm{Hom}(A(p),B(p))$$ with $A(p)$, $B(p)$ the $p$-divisible groups of $A$ and $B$ (a generalisation of Tate's Endomorphisms of Abelian Varieties over Finite Fields to $p = \mathrm{char}(K)$).

Is the Galois action on the $p$-adic Tate module also semisimple as it is for $\ell \neq p$?

REPLY [9 votes]: You're just asking whether Frobenius acts semsimply on the $p$-adic Tate module.
We know from Tate's theorem that Frobenius acts semisimply on the $\ell$-adic Tate module, and hence satisfies some squarefree polynomial (its minimal polynomial). Now because the map from the ring of endomorphisms to the endomorphisms of the Tate module is injective, it also satisfies this squarefree polynomial in the ring of endomorphisms of the abelian variety. Hence it satisfies a squarefree polynomial, and thus is semisimple, when acting on the $p$-adic Tate module as well.