Canonical Valuations and the Birational Section Conjecture

Abstract

We develop a notion of a `canonical $\mathcal{C}$-henselian valuation' for a class $\mathcal{C}$ of field extensions, generalizing the construction of the canonical henselian valuation of a field. We use this to show that the $p$-adic valuation on a finite extension $F$ of ${\mathbb{Q}}_p$ can be recovered entirely (or up to some indeterminacy of the residue field) from various small quotients of $G_F$, the absolute Galois group of $F$. In particular, it can be recovered fully from the maximal solvable quotient. We use this to prove several versions of the birational section conjecture for varieties over $p$-adic fields.