Some hereditarily just infinite subgroups of \(\mathcal I\). (Q1880689)

The Nottingham group \(\mathcal J\) is the group of automorphisms of the ring of formal power series in \(t\) over the field \(\mathbb{F}_p\) with \(p\) elements, of the form \(t\mapsto t+\sum_{i\geq 1}a_it^{i+1}\). The starting point of the paper under review is a fine evaluation of the commutator of two elements of \(\mathcal J\) in terms of the solutions of a series of simple recurrence relations. This is then applied to exhibit several classes of closed subgroups of \(\mathcal J\) that are hereditarily just infinite. (A pro-\(p\) group is just infinite if every proper quotient of it is finite; and it is hereditarily just infinite if all of its open subgroups are just infinite.) This provides a new approach to the torsion-free hereditarily just infinite groups constructed by \textit{I.~Fesenko} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 517, 61-80 (1999; Zbl 0997.11107)]; and also leads to the constructions of new hereditarily just infinite pro-\(p\) groups in which every open subgroup has non-trivial torsion. The latter groups are interesting in the context of Galois theory.