Higher-level canonical subgroups for p-divisible groups

Abstract

Let R be a complete rank-1 valuation ring of mixed characteristic (0,p), and let K be its field of fractions. A g-dimensional truncated Barsotti-Tate group G of level n over R is said to have a level-n canonical subgroup if there is a K-subgroup of G\tensor_R K with geometric structure (\Z/p^n\Z)^g consisting of points "closest to zero". We give a nontrivial condition on the Hasse invariant of G that guarantees the existence of the canonical subgroup, analogous to a result of Katz and Lubin for elliptic curves. The bound is independent of the height and dimension of G.