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Now suppose $\mathrm{char}K=p>0$. The Teichmuller lifts constructed in (b) are additive as well as multiplicative: if $a^q=a$ and $b^q=b$, then the characteristic-$p$ Frobenius identity gives $(a+b{)}^q=a^q+b^q=a+b$. Uniqueness of the lift with prescribed residue yields $[\bar{a}+\bar{b}]=[\bar{a}]+[\bar{b}]$. Their set is therefore a finite coefficient field in positive-characteristic local fields, and reduction identifies it with $k$.

Choose a uniformizer $\pi$. For $x\in {\mathcal{O}}_K$, let $a_0$ be the lift of its residue and write $x=a_0+\pi x_1$ with $x_1\in {\mathcal{O}}_K$. Repeat with $x_1$, then $x_2$, and so on. This givesThe remainder tends to zero, and completeness gives $x={\sum }_{j\ge 0}{a}_j{\pi }^j$. The expansion is unique: in a nonzero difference of two series the first different coefficient is a nonzero element of the coefficient field, hence a unit, and so gives exactly the valuation of that difference.

Consequently substitution $t\mapsto \pi$ defines a bijection $k[[t]]\to {\mathcal{O}}_K$. It is a ring homomorphism because the coefficient lift is a field homomorphism, polynomial operations agree before passage to limits, and multiplication is continuous. Every element of $K$ becomes integral after multiplication by a sufficiently large power of $\pi$. Allowing finitely many negative powers therefore extends substitution to the field isomorphismIt preserves the normalized discrete valuation, since the first nonzero coefficient determines the valuation on each side. The results used are the structural facts stated in (a), its proved Hensel lemma, the proved multiplicative lifting in (b), and the characteristic-$p$ identity $(a+b{)}^q=a^q+b^q$. No classification theorem for local fields is needed.

A local field is nondiscrete and locally compact. In the non-Archimedean case its valuation ring is compact by the scaling argument in part (b). Any Cauchy sequence has a tail in a translate of a compact ball, so has a convergent subsequence; the Cauchy property forces the whole sequence to converge. Thus the field is complete. Part (b) gives a discrete valuation, a uniformizer $\pi$, and a finite residue field $k={\mathbb{F}}_q$, $q=p^f$.

We construct the coefficient field rather than presuming it exists. The polynomial $T^q-T$ has derivative $-1$ in characteristic $p$. Every residue element therefore has a unique polynomial root lift by Hensel's lemma. The set $S$ of these $q$ lifts is a field: qth powers preserve addition and multiplication, so sums and products remain polynomial root lifts; a nonzero lift has inverse $a^{q-2}$. Reduction identifies $S$ with ${\mathbb{F}}_q$. This is the finite coefficient field in positive-characteristic local fields.

For $x\in {\mathcal{O}}_K$, choose $a_0\in S$ with the same residue, write $x=a_0+\pi x_1$, and repeat with $x_1\in {\mathcal{O}}_K$. Completeness givesThe first nonzero coefficient determines the valuation, so the expansion is unique. Multiplying an arbitrary field element by a suitable power of $\pi$ reduces it to this case. Consequently substitution $T\mapsto \pi$ gives a valued-field isomorphismAddition and multiplication agree with those of Laurent series by convergence, and a nonzero series has a nonzero leading coefficient, establishing injectivity as well as surjectivity.

Conversely, ${\mathbb{F}}_q((T))$ is complete for its T-adic absolute value on a field. Its valuation ring ${\mathbb{F}}_q[[T]]$ is compact: fixing finitely many coefficients gives the finite partitions into balls, and the successive coefficient choices realize the inverse limit of the finite rings ${\mathbb{F}}_q[T]/(T^n)$. Equivalently it is the product of countably many finite discrete coefficient sets. Thus it is a non-Archimedean local field. Distinct $q$ give nonisomorphic valued fields because their residue fields have different sizes. Replacing $|T|$ by any number in $(0,1)$ gives an equivalent absolute value on a field.