A homotopy exact sequence for overconvergent isocrystals

Abstract

In this article we prove exactness of the homotopy sequence of overconvergent $p$-adic fundamental groups for a smooth and projective morphism in characteristic $p$. We do so by first proving a corresponding result for rigid analytic varieties in characteristic $0$, following dos Santos in the algebraic case. In characteristic $p$, we then proceed by a series of reductions to the case of a liftable family of curves, where we can apply the rigid analytic result.