Tame inertia quotient ($G_0/G_1$)

For a finite totally ramified Galois extension, the mapinduces an injection $G_0/G_1\hookrightarrow k_L^{\times }$. In particular, the tame inertia quotient is cyclic and has order prime to the residue characteristic.

For a Finite Galois extension of $K(T)$ with algebraically closed characteristic-zero constants, the local decomposition and inertia groups coincide and are cyclic. A fixed compatible choice of primitive roots of unity selects a generator through its uniformizer character of inertia. Changing the prime above a base point conjugates this generator, and changing the uniformizer does not change its character. Without the roots-of-unity convention, only the inertia-subgroup conjugacy class is intrinsic. Over $\mathbb{C}$, positive local orientation gives the standard convention.

In characteristic zero with algebraically closed constants, a local unit has a square root. Thus $K(T)(\sqrt{a})$ near a point is equivalent to adjoining the square root of the local parameter to the power $v_p(a)$. Even order is unramified; odd order gives ramification index two. For a polynomial $a$, its order at infinity is minus its degree, so infinity branches exactly for odd degree.

For a finite Galois extension of non-Archimedean local fields, this is a homomorphism from the inertia group to $k_L^{\times }$ with kernel the wild inertia group. Inertia acts trivially on residue units, which proves multiplicativity and independence of the chosen uniformizer. Passing to the maximal unramified subextension reduces the kernel calculation to a totally ramified extension. Hence it embeds the tame inertia quotient into the cyclic multiplicative group of the residue field.