Radius of convergence of p-adic connections and the Berkovich ramification locus

Abstract

We apply the theory of the radius of convergence of a p-adic connection to the special case of the direct image of the constant connection via a finite morphism of compact p-adic curves, smooth in the sense of rigid geometry. In the case of an etale covering of curves with good reduction, we get a lower bound for that radius and obtain a new geometric proof of a variant of the p-adic Rolle theorem of Robert and Berkovich. We take this opportunity to clarify the relation between our notion of radius of convergencand the more intrinsic one used by Kedlaya