Residue field of the fixed field of the inertia group

algebraic-number-theorygalois-theory

This is from JS Milne's notes on algebraic number theory, the chart on page 139.

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Let $L/K$ be a Galois extension of number fields, $p$ a prime ideal of $O_K$ and $\mathfrak{P}$ a prime ideal of $O_L$ over $p$. Let $I(\mathfrak{P})$ be the inertia group.

Then, the diagram shows that the residue fields $\mathfrak{P}$ and $\mathfrak{P} \cap L^{I(\mathfrak{P})}$ are the same. Why is this?

At first I thought that every element of $(O_L)_\mathfrak{P}$ is equivalent mod $m_\mathfrak{P}$ to something that is fixed by $I(\mathfrak{P})$. But when I tried to prove it , I couldn't. I also thought that it might be related to the fact that after taking completions, the fixed field of $I(\mathfrak{P})$ is the maximal unramified extension of $\widehat{L}$ over $\widehat{K}$ (theorem 7.58), but I don't see the connection between being unramified and the residue fields being the same.

Best Answer

One useful fact is that if $L/K$ is a totally ramified extension of local fields, then $\mathcal{O}_L \simeq \mathcal{O}_K[\pi_L]$ for a root $\pi_L$ of some Eisenstein polynomial over $K$, with $\pi_L$ a uniformizer for $L$. Hence the residue field $\mathcal{l}$ of $L$ is given by $$\mathcal{l} = \mathcal{O}_{L}/(\pi_L) \simeq \mathcal{O}_K[\pi_L]/(\pi_L) \simeq \mathcal{O}_K/((\pi_L) \cap \mathcal{O}_K) = \mathcal{O}_{K}/(\pi_K) = k$$ where $\pi_K$ is a uniformizer for $K$, so we have a natural identification of the residue field of $L$ and the residue field of $K$.

In the diagram, $L_{\mathfrak{P}}$ is a totally ramified extension of $L_{\mathfrak{P}}^{I(\mathfrak{P})}$ since the Galois group is the inertia group $I(\mathfrak{P})$. Hence we may identify the residue fields of these two local fields.

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