Galois deformation theory for norm fields and flat deformation rings

Abstract

Let $K$ be a finite extension of ${\mathbb{Q}}_p$, and choose a uniformizer $\pi \in K$, and put $K_{\infty }:=K(\sqrt[p^{\infty }]{\pi })$. We introduce a new technique using restriction to $\Gal(\ol K/K_\infty)$ to study flat deformation rings. We show the existence of deformation rings for $\Gal(\ol K/K_\infty)$-representations ``of height $⩽h$'' for any positive integer $h$, and we use them to give a variant of Kisin's proof of connected component analysis of a certain flat deformation rings, which was used to prove Kisin's modularity lifting theorem for potentially Barsotti-Tate representations. Our proof does not use the classification of finite flat group schemes, so it avoids Zink's theory of windows and displays when $p=2$. This $\Gal(\ol K/K_\infty)$-deformation theory has a good analogue in positive characteristics analogue of crystalline representations in the sense of Genestier-Lafforgue. In particular, we obtain a positive characteristic analogue of crystalline deformation rings, and can analyze their local structure.