Lifting the field of norms (Q487719)

Let \(K\) be a finite extension of the field \(\mathbb Q _ p\) of \(p\)-adic numbers, \(k _ K\) the residue field of \(K\), and \(K _ {\infty }/K\) a totally ramified Galois extension with a Galois group \(\Gamma _ K\). Suppose that \(K _ {\infty }/K\) is a ``strictly profinite'' extension (this holds, for instance, if \(\Gamma _ K\) is a \(p\)-adic Lie group). One can attach to \(K _ {\infty }/K\) its field of norms \(X _ K(K _ {\infty })\), a field of characteristic \(p\) that is isomorphic to the formal Laurent power series field \(k _ K ((\pi ))\) and endowed with an action of \(\Gamma _ K\) (for more details, see \textit{I. Fesenko}'s paper in [J. Reine Angew. Math. 517, 61--80 (1999; Zbl 0997.11107)]. Let \(E\) be a finite extension of \(\mathbb Q _ p\), such that \(k _ E = k _ K\), and let \(O _ E\) be the integral closure in \(E\) of the ring \(\mathbb Z _ p\) of \(p\)-adic integers. The paper under review considers the question of when the action of \(\Gamma _ K\) on \(k _ K((\pi ))\) can be lifted to the \(p\)-adic completion of the ring \(O _ E[[T]](1/T)\), which is a complete ring of characteristic zero that lifts \(X _ K(K _ {\infty })\), along with a compatible \(O _ E\)-linear Frobenius map \(\varphi _ q\), where \(q\) is the number of elements of \(k _ K\). We say that the action of \(\Gamma _ K\) is liftable, if it is possible to do so. The paper explains the relevance of the stated question to the theory of \((\varphi , \Gamma )\)-modules (see [\textit{A. J. Scholl}, Doc. Math., J. DMV Extra Vol., 685--709 (2007; Zbl 1186.11070)]). It shows that if the action of \(\Gamma _ K\) is liftable with \(\varphi _ q(T) \in O _ E[[T]]\), then \(\Gamma _ K\) is abelian and there is an injective character \(\Gamma _ K \to O _ E ^ {\ast }\), whose conjugates by Emb\((E, \overline {\mathbb Q} _ p)\) are of certain special type. The author gives examples of constraints on the extension \(K _ {\infty }/K\) arising from the existence of such a character.