Residue fixed point index and wildly ramified power series

Abstract

In this paper, we study power series having a fixed point of multiplier 1. First, we give a closed formula for the residue fixed point index, in terms of the first coefficients of the power series. Then, we use this formula to study wildly ramified power series in positive characteristic. Among power series having a multiple fixed point of small multiplicity, we characterize those having the smallest possible lower ramification numbers in terms of the residue fixed point index. Furthermore, we show that these power series form a generic set, and, in the case of convergent power series, we also give an optimal lower bound for the distance to other periodic points.