Ramification theory and perfectoid spaces

Let $K_1$ and $K_2$ be complete discrete valuation fields of residue characteristic $p>0$. Let $\pi _{K_1}$ and $\pi _{K_2}$ be their uniformizers. Let $L_1/K_1$ and $L_2/K_2$ be finite extensions with compatible isomorphisms of rings $\mathcal{O}_{K_1}/(\pi _{K_1}^m)\, {\simeq }\, \mathcal{O}_{K_2}/(\pi _{K_2}^m)$ and $\mathcal{O}_{L_1}/(\pi _{K_1}^m)\, {\simeq }\, \mathcal{O}_{L_2}/(\pi _{K_2}^m)$ for some positive integer $m$ which is no more than the absolute ramification indices of $K_1$ and $K_2$. Let $j\leq m$ be a positive rational number. In this paper, we prove that the ramification of $L_1/K_1$ is bounded by $j$ if and only if the ramification of $L_2/K_2$ is bounded by $j$. As an application, we prove that the categories of finite separable extensions of $K_1$ and $K_2$ whose ramifications are bounded by $j$ are equivalent to each other, which generalizes a theorem of Deligne to the case of imperfect residue fields. We also show the compatibility of Scholl’s theory of higher fields of norms with the ramification theory of Abbes–Saito, and the integrality of small Artin and Swan conductors of $p$-adic representations with finite local monodromy.