On Abelian extensions in mixed characteristic and ramification in codimension one

Abstract

A theorem of Paul Roberts states that the integral closure of a regular local ring in a generically abelian extension is Cohen-Macaulay, provided the characteristic of the residue field does not divide the order of the Galois group. An example of Koh shows the conclusion is false in the modular case. After a modification to the statement concerning ramification over $p$ in codimension one, we give an extension of Roberts's theorem to the modular case for unramified regular local rings in mixed characteristic when the $p$-torsion of the Galois group is annihilated by $p$.

Minor revsion. Final version to appear in Int. Math. Res. Not