Equivariant deformation of Mumford curves and of ordinary curves in positive characteristic (Q1395918)

Let \(X\) be an algebraic curve of genus \(g\) over a field \(k\), and assume that \(G\) is a finite group acting on \(X\) via a group monomorphism \(\rho:G\to\Aut(X).\) In this context, a very natural (and classical) question is the following: In how many ways can \(X\) be deformed into another curve of genus \(g\) such that the same group \(G\) still acts on the deformed curve? This amounts to determining the local deformation space \({\mathcal H}_{X,\rho}\) of the pair \((X,\rho)\) as explicitly as possible, and precisely this problem is the subject of the paper under review. In the classical case of compact Riemann surfaces, the answer is well-known and comparatively easy to obtain. In fact, the ramification data of the quotient map \(X\to Y:=X/G\) provide, due to the absence of wild ramification in characteristic zero, all the necessary information for establishing \({\mathcal H}_{X,\rho}\) as a space of complex dimension \(3g_Y -3+n\), where \(n\) denotes the number of branch points on \(Y\). In the general case, the precise meaning of the problem is related to the deformation functor \(D_{X,\rho}\) of the pair \((X, \rho)\) in the sense of \textit{M. Schlessinger} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 130, 208--222 (1968; Zbl 0167.49503)], as the (always existing) pro-representable hull of \(D_{X,\rho}\) in the category of Noetherian complete local \(k\)-algebras with residue field \(k\) encodes all the numerical information on the local deformation space. Denoting that pro-representable hull of the deformation functor \(D_{X,\rho}\) by \(H_{X, \rho}\), then the formal scheme \(\text{Spf}(H_{X,\rho})\) may be regarded as the universal base space of a family of curves of the wanted kind, and Grothendieck's algebraization theorem finally allows to consider the underlying algebraic scheme over \(k\) as the genuine ``universal base scheme'' one is looking for. Exactly this program is carried out in the present paper from two different viewpoints. In the first part, the authors extend the classical dimension count (in characteristic 0) to the case of characteristic \(p>3\). More precisely, they compute the dimension of the tangent space to, and the Krull dimension of, the pro-representable hull \(H_{X,\rho}\) of the Schlessinger deformation functor \(D_{X,\rho}\) in characteristic \(p\neq 0,2,3\). Using the framework of Grothendieck's equivariant cohomology in a very subtle manner, they establish \(H_{X, \rho}\) as a ring of Krull dimension \[ \dim H_{X,\rho}=3g_Y-3+n+d, \] where \(Y:=X/G\) and the correction term \(d\) is expressed in terms of the wild ramification data of the covering \(X\to Y\). The second part of the paper is concerned with analytic equivariant deformation theory in the following sense. Let \(K\) be a non-archimedean field of characteristic \(p> 3\) with residue field \(k\), and suppose that \(X\) is a Mumford curve [\textit{G. Cornelissen}, \textit{F. Kato} and \textit{A. Kontogeorgis}, Math. Ann. 320, No. 1, 55--85 (2001; Zbl 1031.14011)] of genus \(g\geq 2\) with Schottky group \(\Gamma\). Furthermore, let \(N\) be a discrete subgroup of the normalizer \(N(\Gamma)\) of \(\Gamma\) in \(\text{PGL} (2,K)\). For these data, the authors introduce the so-called ``equicharacteristic analytic deformation functor'' \(D^\sim_{N, \varphi}\), where \(\varphi\) denotes a fixed embedding of \(N\) into \(N(\Gamma)\), and their main theorem of this analytical part states that \(D^\infty_{N,\varphi}\) is pro-representable by a ring \(H^\sim_{N, \varphi}\) whose Krull dimension can be calculated explicitely in terms of the Bass-Serre graph of the group \(N\). Apart from the general interest in these deformation-theoretic results extending the classical theory, there are also very concrete motivations and applications with a view to arithmetic geometry. As the authors point out, the study of moduli schemes for rank-two Drinfeld modules with principal level structure [\textit{E.-U. Gekeler} and \textit{M. Reversat}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 476, 27--93 (1996; Zbl 0848.11029)] requires a better understanding of the deformation spaces treated in the present paper. At the end of their fine analysis, the authors prove that the algebraic deformation functor and the analytic deformation functor are indeed isomorphic in the case of Mumford curves with prescribed group action.