Abelian-by-central Galois groups of fields. II: Definability of inertia/decomposition groups (Q501849)

Birational anabelian geometry is a subject where one tries to reconstruct fields of arithmetic or geometric significance from their Galois groups. One of the main steps of the research in this area is the local theory whose purpose is to recover as much information as possible about the inertia and decomposition structure of valuations from the given Galois-theoretical data. A general result of this kind is the Galois theoretic characterization of fields containing a primitive \(l\)-th root of unity, for a prime number \(l\) different from the characteristic, given by \textit{A. J. Engler} and \textit{J. Koenigsmann} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 350, No. 6, 2473--2485 (1998; Zbl 0999.12004)], and Engler and \textit{J. B. Nogueira} [J. Algebra 166, No. 3, 481--505 (1994; Zbl 0809.12004)], which allows one to recover the inertia and decomposition groups of \(l\)-tamely branching valuations of a field \(E\) containing a primitive \(l\)-th root of unity, using the structure of of the Galois group of the maximal \(l\)-extension \(E(l)/E\). Another related example, concerning the theory of quadratic forms, is provided by \textit{I. Efrat}'s results on abelian subgroups of maximal pro-\(2\) Galois groups [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 123, No. 4, 1031--1035 (1995; Zbl 0834.12003)]. More recently, however, the local theory turned to the problem of recovering information about inertia and decomposition groups using much smaller Galois groups, such as abelian-by-central Galois groups, or other similar invariants of the field like the Milnor \(K\)-ring or the Galois cohomology ring. It was shown in this direction, relying on results that detect valuations using mod-\(l\) Milnor \(K\)-rings, that the mod-\(l\) abelian-by-central Galois group encodes the existence of a tamely branching \(l\)-Henselian valuation [\textit{I. Efrat}, Acta Arith. 156, No. 1, 7--17 (2012; Zbl 1304.12003); Math. Res. Lett. 6, No. 3--4, 335--343 (1999; Zbl 0963.12003)], and the book [Valuations, Orderings, and Milnor \(K\)-Theory. Providence, RI: Am. Math. Soc. (2006; Zbl 1103.12002)]. Also, the mod-\(2\) abelian-by-central context was first explored by \textit{L. Mahé}, \textit{J. Mináč} and \textit{T. L. Smith} with relations to orderings, valuations and quadratic forms [Doc. Math. 9, 301--355 (2004; Zbl 1073.11025)]. The paper under review is a continuation of the author's paper [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 369, No. 4, 2721--2745 (2017: Zbl 1396.12005)]. It extends the local theories which recover inertia and decomposition groups using the mod-\(l^n\) abelian-by-central Galois group. The primary motivation for the author comes from the Bogomolov-Pop conjecture providing a precise functorial formulation of Bogomolov's program for ``reconstructing'' higher-dimensional function fields over an algebraically closed field from their pro-\(l\) abelian-by-central Galois groups (see [\textit{F. Bogomolov}, Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 55, No. 1, 32--67 (1991; Zbl 0736.12004], [\textit{F. Pop}, Invent. Math. 187, No. 3, 511--533 (2012; Zbl 1239.14025)]. The main feature setting the paper apart from its predecessors is that the recipes described therein are inherently first order. More precisely, it shows that the minimized inertia and decomposition groups of quasi-divisorial valuations are uniformly definable by explicit formulae in a natural language of abelian-by-central groups, namely, the language of \(C\)-pairs, given a suitable definable set \(\Sigma \) of parameters (which exists in most situations). Thereby, it strengthens some results of [\textit{F. Pop}, Isr. J. Math. 180, 43--68 (2010; Zbl 1309.12005)]. The main theorems of the reviewed paper are stated in a more general setting, where the set \(\Sigma \) need not be definable. They apply to arbitrary fields containing sufficiently many roots of unity, and they generalize and simplify some of the technical main results of the author's paper [J. Reine Angew. Math. 730, 65--133 (2017; Zbl 1407.12003)].