Counterexamples to local monomialization in positive characteristic (Q2354330)

The paper under review contains a significant new (negative) result about local monomialization of an inclusion of regular local rings along a valuation. Recall that an inclusion of regular local rings \(R \to S\) of the same dimension \(n\), where \(S\) dominates \(R\) (i.e. \(m_S \cap R = m_R\)) is \textit{monomial} if there exist regular systems of parameters \(x_1, \ldots, x_n\) in \(R\), \(y_1, \ldots, y_n\) in \(S\), units \({\delta}_1, \ldots, {\delta}_n\) in \(S\) and a matrix \(A=(a_{ij})\) with nonnegative coefficients and nonzero determinant such that \(x_i={\delta}_i y_1^{a_{i1}} \cdots y_n^{a_{in}}, \quad 1 \leq i \leq n .\) Assume now that \(R\) and \(S\) above are excellent integral domains, with fields of fractions \(K\) and \(K^*\) respectively, where the induced inclusion \(K \to K^*\) is finite and separable, that \(\nu ^*\) is a valuation of \(K^*\) with valuation ring \(V_{\nu^*}\), \(S\) dominates \(R\) and \(\nu^*\) (i.e., \(V_{\nu ^*}\)) dominates \(S\). A \textit{weak local monomialization of \(R\to S\) along \(\nu ^*\)} is a commutative diagram of inclusions of regular local rings \[ \begin{matrix} R_1&{\rightarrow}&S_1&{\subset}&{V_{\nu^*}}\\ {\uparrow}&&{\uparrow}&&\\ R&{\rightarrow}&S&& \end{matrix} \] where \(S_1\) dominate \(R_1\) and \(V_{\nu^*}\) dominates \(S_1\), such that the vertical arrows are birational and and \(R_1 \to S_1\) is binomial. If, in addition, the vertical arrows are compositions of monoidal transforms with regular centers, we talk about a \textit{local monomialization}. In previous work the author proved that if \(K^*\) is a field of rational functions over a base field of characteristic zero, a local monomialization along a valuation always exists. In the present article he shows that this is not the case if the characteristic is positive. He proves that given any base field \(k\) of positive characteristic, containing at least three elements, there is a finite separable extension \(K \to K^*\) of \(n\) dimensional function fields and a valuation \(\nu^*\) of \(K^*\), regular local domains \(A\) and \(B\) whose fields of fractions are \(K\) and \(K^*\) respectively, where \(B\) dominates \(A\), a valuation \(\nu^*\) of \(K^*\) dominating \(B\), such that there is no weak monomialization of the inclusion \(A \to B\) along \(\nu ^*\). The author proves this first for \(n =2\), by giving a specific example valid over any field with more than two elements. Actually, in this example \(K=k(u,v)\), \(K^*=k(x,y)\) (both fields of rational functions in two variables), where \(u=x^p(1+y)\), \(v=y^p+x\), and \(A=k[u,v]_{(u,v)}\) and \(B=k[x,y]_{(x,y)}\). To prove that there is no weak monomialization is complicated and ingenious, but the techniques involved are rather elementary. The transition from \(n=2\) to arbitrary dimension is achieved by ``adding more variables''.