Lubin-Tate Tower & Local Correspondences

• Lubin-Tate Tower is a projective system of deformation spaces for one-dimensional formal modules that underpin local Langlands and Jacquet-Langlands correspondences.
• It parametrizes deformations with Drinfeld level structures, yielding perfectoid spaces and explicit constructions in de Rham and analytic cohomology.
• Cohomological analyses via étale, p-adic, and mod-p methods reveal deep links between representation theory and the tower’s local geometric and arithmetic properties.

The Lubin-Tate tower is a projective system of deformation spaces attached to a one-dimensional formal module of finite height over a non-archimedean local field, equipped with increasingly fine Drinfeld level structure. In the formulations used across the literature, it appears as a tower of formal schemes, rigid-analytic spaces, adic spaces, perfectoid spaces, or diamonds, depending on the level and the geometric framework. Its central arithmetic role is that its cohomology realizes local Langlands- and Jacquet-Langlands-type correspondences, while its geometry connects deformation theory, local Shimura varieties, Fargues-Fontaine geometry, perfectoid methods, and $(\varphi,\Gamma)$-module formalisms (Weinstein, 2010, Su, 12 Mar 2025).

1. Moduli problem and tower structure

At finite level, the tower parametrizes deformations of a fixed one-dimensional formal $\mathcal{O}_F$-module, or formal $\mathcal{O}_K$-module, of prescribed height together with Drinfeld level structure. One standard description is that the Lubin-Tate deformation spaces parametrize deformations of a one-dimensional formal module of height $h$ together with level structure (Weinstein, 2010). In the notation of the infinite-level de Rham comparison paper, $M_{LT,0}$ parametrizes deformations of a one-dimensional compatible $\mathcal{O}_L$-module $H_0$ of $\mathcal{O}_L$-height $d+1$, and each $M_{LT,n}$ is an étale Galois covering of $\mathcal{O}_F$0 with group $\mathcal{O}_F$1 (Su, 12 Mar 2025).

The tower carries commuting symmetries. In the $\mathcal{O}_F$2-adic formulation, the rigid generic fibers $\mathcal{O}_F$3 admit an admissible smooth action of $\mathcal{O}_F$4, where $\mathcal{O}_F$5 is the central division algebra over $\mathcal{O}_F$6 of invariant $\mathcal{O}_F$7 (Mieda, 2011). In the first-cover de Rham setting, there are commuting actions of $\mathcal{O}_F$8, $\mathcal{O}_F$9, and $\mathcal{O}_K$0 (Junger, 2022). These actions are the representation-theoretic mechanism by which cohomology of the tower encodes local correspondences.

The deformation rings themselves also support a field-theoretic avatar of the tower. Starting from universal deformation rings $\mathcal{O}_K$1 for deformations with Drinfeld level-$\mathcal{O}_K$2 structure, one can choose compatible height-one primes $\mathcal{O}_K$3, localize and complete to obtain fields $\mathcal{O}_K$4, and then form a tower $\mathcal{O}_K$5. This tower is strictly deeply ramified in the sense of Scholl; when $\mathcal{O}_K$6, the paper further studies whether it is Kummer and proves a negative result for $\mathcal{O}_K$7 in the strong form where one seeks a single element generating all levels simultaneously (Carter et al., 2016). This suggests that the geometric Lubin-Tate tower has a parallel arithmetic incarnation in fields-of-norms theory, but with ramification behavior subtler than the classical height-one case.

2. Infinite-level geometry, period maps, and perfectoid quotients

At infinite level, the inverse limit of the tower becomes a perfectoid space. This is explicit in several formulations: the infinite-level Lubin-Tate space $\mathcal{O}_K$8 exists as a perfectoid space over $\mathcal{O}_K$9, and it carries continuous actions of $h$0 and $h$1 (Su, 12 Mar 2025). The infinite-level geometry is organized by period maps. The Gross-Hopkins period map

$h$2

targets the adic flag variety associated to the division algebra side, while the Hodge-Tate period map

$h$3

targets the adic flag variety for the linear group side (Su, 12 Mar 2025).

A major development is that certain non-compact quotients of the infinite-level tower still exist as perfectoid spaces. For $h$4, the quotient $h$5 by the upper-triangular Borel subgroup exists as a perfectoid space, and the induced morphism to $h$6 is quasi-compact with affinoid perfectoid fibers (Ludwig, 2016). More generally, for $h$7 finite and $h$8, the quotient $h$9 by the maximal parabolic subgroup of block form $M_{LT,0}$0 is a perfectoid space of Krull dimension $M_{LT,0}$1 (Johansson et al., 2018).

These quotient constructions are not uniform across all parabolics. In the local description given in the appendix to the parabolic quotient paper, the quotient by a maximal parabolic $M_{LT,0}$2 is perfectoid only for $M_{LT,0}$3 or $M_{LT,0}$4; for $M_{LT,0}$5, it is never perfectoid, even though it remains proper and $M_{LT,0}$6-cohomologically smooth for $M_{LT,0}$7 (Johansson et al., 2018). This corrects a possible misconception that perfectoidness should persist under arbitrary parabolic quotients of infinite-level Rapoport-Zink spaces.

3. Étale and $M_{LT,0}$8-adic cohomology

The cohomology of the Lubin-Tate tower is one of the standard local realizations of non-abelian local reciprocity. In the $M_{LT,0}$9-adic setting, Mieda studies the alternating sum $\mathcal{O}_L$0 and proves that, for an irreducible smooth representation $\mathcal{O}_L$1 of $\mathcal{O}_L$2 trivial on $\mathcal{O}_L$3,

$\mathcal{O}_L$4

in the Grothendieck group modulo parabolic induction. Equivalently, discrete series representations occur in the Lubin-Tate tower exactly through the local Jacquet-Langlands correspondence, and in the supercuspidal case the relevant contribution is concentrated in degree $\mathcal{O}_L$5 (Mieda, 2011).

Scholze’s $\mathcal{O}_L$6-adic cohomological construction attaches to any admissible smooth $\mathcal{O}_L$7-representation $\mathcal{O}_L$8 of $\mathcal{O}_L$9 a Weil-equivariant sheaf $H_0$0 on $H_0$1, and proves a finiteness theorem for

$H_0$2

These groups are independent of $H_0$3, vanish for $H_0$4, are admissible as $H_0$5-representations, and carry a continuous action of $H_0$6. This yields a canonical functor from admissible $H_0$7-adic representations of $H_0$8 to admissible representations of $H_0$9, together with a local-global compatibility statement and compatibility with patching constructions of Caraiani-Emerton-Gee-Geraghty-Paskunas-Shin (Scholze, 2015).

Integral and mod-$\mathcal{O}_L$0 refinements sharpen this picture. Boyer proves that the $\mathcal{O}_L$1-cohomology of the Lubin-Tate tower is free of $\mathcal{O}_L$2-torsion by a global argument using vanishing cycles on Kottwitz-Harris-Taylor Shimura varieties and the comparison between the $\mathcal{O}_L$3 and $\mathcal{O}_L$4 perverse $\mathcal{O}_L$5-structures (Boyer, 2013). Dat’s integral non-abelian Lubin-Tate theory then realizes Langlands and Jacquet-Langlands correspondences for flat families of irreducible supercuspidal representations over a $\mathcal{O}_L$6-algebra $\mathcal{O}_L$7, gives a cohomological realization of the Langlands-Vignéras correspondence when $\mathcal{O}_L$8 is a field of characteristic $\mathcal{O}_L$9, and produces bijections between deformations of matching mod-$d+1$0 representations (Dat, 2010).

The mod-$d+1$1 picture is qualitatively different. For $d+1$2, Chojecki proves that supersingular representations do not occur in $d+1$3 of the Lubin-Tate tower, whereas the mod-$d+1$4 local Langlands correspondence and a mod-$d+1$5 Jacquet-Langlands correspondence do appear in $d+1$6 without compact support (Chojecki, 2013). Under the Buzzard-Diamond-Jarvis conjecture and related hypotheses, an analogous realization of the conjectural mod-$d+1$7 local Langlands correspondence for $d+1$8 over totally real fields is obtained in the mod-$d+1$9 cohomology of Lubin-Tate towers (Banerjee et al., 2022). This marks a clear distinction between compactly supported and non-compactly supported mod-$M_{LT,n}$0 cohomology.

4. de Rham and analytic cohomology

The de Rham theory of the Lubin-Tate tower is now developed both at finite and infinite level. For the first cover $M_{LT,n}$1, the supercuspidal part of de Rham cohomology realizes the local Jacquet-Langlands correspondence for $M_{LT,n}$2 by comparison with rigid cohomology of Deligne-Lusztig varieties. For a primitive character $M_{LT,n}$3,

$M_{LT,n}$4

providing a purely local proof for the supercuspidal level-zero part (Junger, 2022).

At infinite level, Chojecki proves that the $M_{LT,n}$5-adic local Langlands correspondence for $M_{LT,n}$6 appears in étale cohomology: $M_{LT,n}$7 for $M_{LT,n}$8 arising as the restriction of a global pro-modular Galois representation with absolutely irreducible local restriction. The proof uses global methods, Emerton’s local-global compatibility, and $M_{LT,n}$9-adic uniformization of Rapoport-Zink at infinite level (Chojecki, 2014).

The same paper formulates a de Rham analogue, but with a crucial perfectoid correction. For a perfectoid space $\mathcal{O}_F$00, one has

$\mathcal{O}_F$01

so de Rham cohomology reduces to analytic cohomology of the structure sheaf: $\mathcal{O}_F$02 This motivates the conjectural injection

$\mathcal{O}_F$03

for continuous de Rham $\mathcal{O}_F$04. The same source stresses that analytic cohomology of the Lubin-Tate perfectoid is not always admissible, so the étale-cohomological machinery does not transfer formally (Chojecki, 2014).

A separate infinite-level result identifies Lubin-Tate and Drinfeld de Rham cohomology directly. Using methods introduced by Lue Pan, the compactly supported de Rham cohomology of Lubin-Tate towers and Drinfeld towers are canonically isomorphic as $\mathcal{O}_F$05-modules: $\mathcal{O}_F$06 The proof proceeds through locally analytic sheaves, explicit expansions of locally analytic sections, and a double-complex interpolation between the two de Rham complexes (Su, 12 Mar 2025).

5. Explicit local geometry, reductions, and purely local methods

A striking feature of the Lubin-Tate tower is that very explicit affinoid neighborhoods can already encode deep representation theory. In equal characteristic, Weinstein constructs affinoids in the Lubin-Tate tower with good reduction around unramified canonical points. Their special fibers are smooth hypersurfaces given by an explicit determinant equation: $\mathcal{O}_F$07 Granting a conjecture on the associated $\mathcal{O}_F$08-functions, the resulting $\mathcal{O}_F$09-adic cohomology links the Deligne-Carayol theorem to Bushnell-Kutzko types for certain wildly ramified supercuspidal representations of small conductor (Weinstein, 2010).

For $\mathcal{O}_F$10 in odd equal characteristic, Tsushima develops this local geometry further by constructing affinoids near CM points with both unramified and ramified level structures, computing their reductions, and showing via Huber’s étale cohomology of adic spaces that the cohomology of the reductions contributes to the cohomology of the Lubin-Tate curve. The reductions include Artin-Schreier curves such as

$\mathcal{O}_F$11

and

$\mathcal{O}_F$12

as well as a depth-zero Deligne-Lusztig curve. These explicit models yield a purely local proof of non-abelian Lubin-Tate theory for $\mathcal{O}_F$13 in the odd equal characteristic case, and conversely recover explicit Bushnell-Henniart descriptions geometrically (Tsushima, 2016).

These constructions clarify that the tower’s cohomology can often be accessed by carefully chosen local pieces rather than by a full global description of stable reduction. A plausible implication is that explicit affinoid analysis remains one of the most effective routes toward purely local proofs of correspondence-theoretic statements beyond the cases currently known.

6. Relations to other towers, arithmetic formalisms, and stack-theoretic reformulations

The Lubin-Tate tower sits inside broader geometric frameworks. On the Fargues-Fontaine curve, Shtukas for general simple basic unramified EL-type Rapoport-Zink spaces are related to Lubin-Tate by a geometric formula

$\mathcal{O}_F$14

When $\mathcal{O}_F$15 is Lubin-Tate data, this expresses general EL-type spaces as twisted products of Lubin-Tate with central Shtukas, and yields explicit cohomological formulas reducing the general case to the Lubin-Tate case (Nguyen, 2019).

On the Galois-theoretic side, Lubin-Tate extensions $\mathcal{O}_F$16 generated by torsion points of a Lubin-Tate formal module give rise to the group $\mathcal{O}_F$17 and to Lubin-Tate $\mathcal{O}_F$18-modules. Schneider and Venjakob generalize Fontaine’s cyclotomic description of local Iwasawa cohomology to arbitrary Lubin-Tate towers through an exact sequence controlled by $\mathcal{O}_F$19, and establish explicit reciprocity laws involving Coleman power series and generalized Coates-Wiles homomorphisms (Schneider et al., 2015). A later comparison of Lubin-Tate $\mathcal{O}_F$20-module categories proves that the Lubin-Tate tower is weakly decompleting but not decompleting in the sense of Kedlaya-Liu, so descent over imperfect period rings fails in general even though Herr complexes still compute Galois cohomology (Schneider et al., 2023).

The tower also admits stack-theoretic and topological reinterpretations. In the stacky viewpoint, the Lubin-Tate action of the automorphism group of a formal group is encoded by quotient stacks, with

$\mathcal{O}_F$21

and a “two tower method” relating Lubin-Tate and Drinfeld quotients through torsor stacks (Ray, 30 Jun 2025). In a different direction, the classical Lubin-Tate tower embeds into a “degenerating Lubin-Tate tower” that admits a compatible system of presheaves of $\mathcal{O}_F$22-ring spectra, leading to an $\mathcal{O}_F$23-adic topological Jacquet-Langlands duality connecting representations of $\mathcal{O}_F$24 and supercuspidal representations of $\mathcal{O}_F$25 in chromatic homotopy theory (Salch et al., 2023).

Taken together, these developments show that the Lubin-Tate tower is not merely a deformation-theoretic moduli object. It is simultaneously a source of local Langlands realizations, a perfectoid local Shimura space, a testbed for analytic and de Rham methods, a generator of Lubin-Tate $\mathcal{O}_F$26-structures, and a geometric core from which more general Rapoport-Zink, stack-theoretic, and even topological constructions can be reduced or modeled.