Forms of an affinoid disc and ramification (Q746908)

Let \(k\) be a complete nonarchimedean valued field with a nontrivial valuation. The paper under review deals with forms of \(k\)-affinoid discs (of dimension 1), {i.e.} \(k\)-affinoid spaces that become isomorphic to discs after some extension \(\ell/k\). One of the main tools is \textit{M. Temkin}'s graded reduction for affinoid algebras see [Isr. J. Math. 140, 1--27 (2004; Zbl 1066.32025)]: to the affinoid algebra \(A\), one associates the graded algebra \(\tilde{A}_{\bullet} = \bigoplus_{\gamma>0} A_{\leq \gamma}/A_{<\gamma}\), where \(A_{\leq \gamma}\) (resp. \(A_{<\gamma}\)) denotes the set of elements of spectral norm at most \(\gamma\) (resp. smaller than \(\gamma\)). It is a graded \(\tilde{k}_{\bullet}\)-algebra of finite type. When the affinoid algebra is that of the disc of radius \(r\), the reduction is the graded polynomial algebra \(\tilde{k}_{\bullet}[r^{-1}T]\) (with \(T\) of degree \(r\)), which is quite analogous to the algebra of the affine line. A large part of Schmidt's work is devoted to understanding forms of such algebras. The first part of the paper handles the case where the extension \(\ell/k\) is tame (which happens exactly when the extension \(\tilde\ell_{\bullet}/\tilde k_{\bullet}\) is separable). Schmidt proves that the forms of the disc of radius \(r>0\) with respect to \(\ell/k\) are the discs of radius \(\gamma r\), where \(\gamma\) runs through a system of representatives of \(|\ell^\times|/|k^\times|\). In particular, there are no nontrivial forms when \(\ell/k\) is unramified. This is in accordance with \textit{A. Ducros}'s result see [Math. Z. 273, No. 1--2, 331--353 (2013; Zbl 1264.14035)] that there are no nontrivial unramified forms of open polydisks (of arbitrary dimension). The rest of the paper is devoted to the case where the extension \(\ell/k\) is wild (which happens exactly when the extension \(\tilde\ell_{\bullet}/\tilde k_{\bullet}\) is purely inseparable). The author first studies forms of \(\tilde{k}_{\bullet}[r^{-1}T]\) with \(\tilde{k}_{\bullet}\) of positive characteristic. He finds explicit expressions for them, similar to \textit{P. Russell}'s results in the classical case see [Pac. J. Math. 32, 527--539 (1970; Zbl 0199.24502)]. It is possible to lift these forms to find wildly ramified forms of the disc of radius \(r\), which the author calls of Russell type. In the last sections of the paper, Schmidt investigates the Grothendieck group and the Picard group of a form \(X\) of a disc of radius \(r\) under additional assumptions: \(r \in \sqrt{|k^\ast|}\), \(k\) is discretely valued, \(\ell/k\) is totally ramified of degree \(p^n\) and the graded reduction of \(X\) is geometrically reduced. In particular, he shows that, in this case, the Picard group of \(X\) coincides with that of its graded reduction \(\tilde{X}_{\bullet}\) and has exponent \(p^n\).