Colength one deformation rings

Abstract: Let $K/\mathbf{Q}p$ be a finite unramified extension, $\overline{\rho}:\mathrm{Gal}(\overline{\mathbf{Q}}_p/K)\rightarrow\mathrm{GL}_n(\overline{\mathbf{F}}_p)$ a continuous representation, and $\tau$ a tame inertial type of dimension $n$. We explicitly determine, under mild regularity conditions on $\tau$, the potentially crystalline deformation ring $R^{\eta,\tau}{\overline{\rho}}$ in parallel Hodge--Tate weights $\eta=(n-1,\cdots,1,0)$ and inertial type $\tau$ when the \emph{shape} of $\overline{\rho}$ with respect to $\tau$ has colength at most one. This has application to the modularity of a class of shadow weights in the weight part of Serre's conjecture. Along the way we make unconditional the local-global compatibility results of \cite{PQ} and further study the geometry of moduli spaces of Fontaine--Laffaille representations in terms of colength one weights.