Let G be a split connected reductive group defined over $\mathbb {Z}$. Let F and $F'$ be two non-Archimedean m-close local fields, where m is a positive integer. D. Kazhdan gave an isomorphism between the Hecke algebras $\mathrm {Kaz}_m^F :\mathcal {H}\big (G(F),K_F\big ) \rightarrow \mathcal {H}\big (G(F'),K_{F'}\big )$, where $K_F$ and $K_{F'}$ are the mth usual congruence subgroups of $G(F)$ and $G(F')$, respectively. On the other hand, if $\sigma $ is an automorphism of G of prime order l, then we have Brauer homomorphism $\mathrm {Br}:\mathcal {H}(G(F),U(F))\rightarrow \mathcal {H}(G^\sigma (F),U^\sigma (F))$, where $U(F)$ and $U^\sigma (F)$ are compact open subgroups of $G(F)$ and $G^\sigma (F),$ respectively. In this article, we study the compatibility between these two maps in the local base change setting. Further, an application of this compatibility is given in the context of linkage – which is the representation theoretic version of Brauer homomorphism.

We prove certain depth bounds for Arthur’s endoscopic transfer of representations from classical groups to the corresponding general linear groups over local fields of characteristic 0, with some restrictions on the residue characteristic. We then use these results and the method of Deligne and Kazhdan of studying representation theory over close local fields to obtain, under some restrictions on the characteristic, the local Langlands correspondence for split classical groups over local function fields from the corresponding result of Arthur in characteristic 0.