Automorphisms of Harbater-Katz-Gabber curves

Positive characteristic ground fields in algebraic geometry (14G17) Automorphisms of curves (14H37) Representations of groups as automorphism groups of algebraic systems (20F29)

Abstract: Let k be a perfect field of characteristic p > 0, and let G be a finite group. We consider the pointed G-curves over k associated by Harbater, Katz, and Gabber to faithful actions of G on kt over k. We use such "HKG G-curves" to classify the automorphisms of kt of p-power order that can be expressed by particularly explicit formulas, namely those mapping t to a power series lying in a Z/pZ Artin-Schreier extension of k(t). In addition, we give necessary and sufficient criteria to decide when an HKG G-curve with an action of a larger finite group J is also an HKG J-curve.

Review text

Let \(K\) be a perfect field, let \(Kt\) be the power series ring, and let \(\mathrm{Aut}(Kt)\) denote its automorphism group as a \(K\)-algebra. If the characteristic of \(K\) is positive, then \(\mathrm{Aut}(Kt)\) contains interesting subgroups of finite order. A nice way to construct such subgroups is to consider an algebraic curve \(X\) on which a given finite group \(G\) acts having a fixed point \(x\) with residue field \(K\), so that \(G\) acts on the completion \(\hat{O}_{X,x}\) of the local ring of \(x\) at \(X\), and \(\hat{O}_{X,x}\) is isomorphic to \(Kt\) for any choice of uniformazing parameter \(t\) at \(x\). Precisely, results of \textit{D. Harbater} [Commun. Algebra 8, 1095--1125 (1980; Zbl 0471.14011)], and \textit{N. M. Katz} [Ann. Inst. Fourier 36, No. 4, 69--106 (1986; Zbl 0564.14013)] show that every finite subgroup \(G\) of \(\mathrm{Aut}(Kt)\) can be realized in this way. The importance of this techniques is that, for example, one can study local questions about elements in \(\mathrm{Aut}(Kt)\) using global tools such as the Hurwitz formula for covers of the curves over \(K\). In this paper, this method is used to study two open problems when \(K\) is a perfect field of characteristic \(p>0\). The first problem, is to find explicit formulas elements \(\alpha\) in \(\mathrm{Aut}(Kt)\) whose orders are powers of \(p\). All such \(\alpha\)'s where classified completely in Theorem 1.2. The second problem, is to study the full automorphism group of \textit{Harbater-Katz-Gabber G-curves} (HKG G-curves), namely curves \(X\) together with a \(G\)-action as described above. A reason for this study, is that it turns out that almost rational automorphisms arise from HKG G-curves \(X\) for which \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) is strictly larger than \(G\). Other applications of HKG G-curves (such as the lifting problem of automorphisms of \(Kt\) in characteristic zero) can be find in [\textit{T. Chinburg} et al., Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 44, No. 4, 537--605 (2011; Zbl 1239.14024)].

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