On the structure of certain valued fields

Abstract

In this article, we study the structure of finitely ramified mixed characteristic valued fields. For any two complete discrete valued fields $K_1$ and $K_2$ of mixed characteristic with perfect residue fields, we show that if the $n$-th residue rings are isomorphic for each $n\ge 1$, then $K_1$ and $K_2$ are isometric and isomorphic. More generally, for $n_1\ge 1$, there is $n_2$ depending only on the ramification indices of $K_1$ and $K_2$ such that any homomorphism from the $n_1$-th residue ring of $K_1$ to the $n_2$-th residue ring of $K_2$ can be lifted to a homomorphism between the valuation rings. Moreover, we get a functor from the category of certain principal Artinian local rings of length $n$ to the category of certain complete discrete valuation rings of mixed characteristic with perfect residue fields, which naturally generalizes the functorial property of unramified complete discrete valuation rings. Our lifting result improves Basarab's relative completeness theorem for finitely ramified henselian valued fields, which solves a question posed by Basarab, in the case of perfect residue fields.