Formal Flows on the Non-Archimedean Open Unit Disk

Abstract

This paper deals with group actions of one-dimensional formal groups defined over the ring of integers in a finite extension of the p-adic field, where the space acted upon is the maximal ideal in the ring of integers of an algebraic closure of the p-adic field. Given a formal group F as above, a formal flow is a series Φ(t,x) satisfying the conditions Φ(0,x)=x and Φ(F(s,t),x)=Φ(s,Φ(t,x)). With this definition, any formal group will act on the disk by left translation, but this paper constructs flows Φ with any specified divisor of fixed points, where a point ξ of the open unit disk is a fixed point of order [les ]n if (x−ξ)ⁿ|(Φ(t,x)−x). Furthermore, if γ is an analytic automorphism of the open unit disk with only finitely many periodic points, then there is a flow Φ, an element α of the maximal ideal of the ring of constants, and an integer m such that the m-fold iteration of γ(x) is equal to Φ(α,x). All the formal flows constructed here are actions of the additive formal group on the unit disk. Indeed, if the divisor of fixed points of a formal flow is of degree at least two, then the formal group involved must become isomorphic to the additive group when the base is extended to the residue field of the constant ring.