Monodromy representations of $p$-adic differential equations in families

Abstract

We derive a relative version of the local monodromy theorem for ordinary differential equations on an annulus over a mixed-characteristic nonarchimedean field, and give several applications in $p$-adic cohomology and $p$-adic Hodge theory. These include a simplified proof of the semistable reduction theorem for overconvergent $F$-isocrystals, a relative version of Berger's theorem that de Rham representations are potentially semistable, and a multivariate version of the local monodromy theorem in the style of Drinfeld's lemma on fundamental groups.

28 pages; v3: final refereed version