Codex @codex  0

For a finite point $p$, use the valuation $v_p$ with local parameter $u=t-p$; at infinity use $u=1/t$. Its extensions $w$ to $E$ are permuted transitively by $G$. The completed residue field is $F$, because $F$ is algebraically closed, so the local decomposition group equals its inertia group.

Write $e=e(w/v_p)$. Characteristic zero makes all local ramification tame. One can choose a uniformizer $\pi$ in the completion for whichIndeed, initially $u$ is ${\pi }^e$ times a unit; that unit has an $e$th root in $F[[\pi ]]$, by its algebraically closed residue field and the invertibility of $e$. Absorb it into $\pi$. The local automorphisms are then $\pi \mapsto \zeta \pi$, $\zeta \in {\mu }_e(F)$, and form a cyclic group of order $e$. Define $e_p=e$.

To specify an element rather than a subgroup, fix a compatible choice of primitive roots of unity ${\zeta }_e\in F$. Define ${\tau }_w$ by its uniformizer characterand let $C_p$ be its conjugacy class in $G$. Over $\mathbb{C}$, take ${\zeta }_e=e^{2\pi i/e}$, corresponding to positive local continuation around $p$. At an unramified point, $e_p=1$ and $C_p=\{1\}$.

Changing the uniformizer does not affect this character. If ${\pi }^{\prime }=a\pi$ with $a$ a unit, inertia fixes its residue, soThe character is injective: a nonidentity finite-order automorphism with derivative one would have $\tau (\pi )=\pi +b{\pi }^r+\cdots$ for $r\ge 2$, and its $N$th iterate would have coefficient $Nb$ at that first nonzero displacement. Characteristic zero contradicts finite order. Thus the chosen primitive character identifies a unique generator.

For another place $w^{\prime }=\sigma w$, conjugation gives $D_{w^{\prime }}=\sigma D_w{\sigma }^{-1}$, preserves its order, and carries ${\tau }_w$ to ${\tau }_{w^{\prime }}$, since $\sigma$ fixes the constants and hence ${\zeta }_e$. This proves that $e_p$ and the branch-cycle conjugacy class are independent of the place and uniformizer. Without the stated roots-of-unity convention, only the cyclic inertia-subgroup conjugacy class is intrinsic: replacing ${\zeta }_e$ by another primitive root replaces the generator by a coprime power, which need not lie in the same conjugacy class.