Rapoport–Zink spaces are deformation spaces for $p$-divisible groups with additional structure. At infinite level, they become preperfectoid spaces. Let ${{\mathscr M}}_{\infty }$ be an infinite-level Rapoport–Zink space of EL type, and let ${{\mathscr M}}_{\infty }^{\circ }$ be one connected component of its geometric fiber. We show that ${{\mathscr M}}_{\infty }^{\circ }$ contains a dense open subset which is cohomologically smooth in the sense of Scholze. This is the locus of $p$-divisible groups which do not have any extra endomorphisms. As a corollary, we find that the cohomologically smooth locus in the infinite-level modular curve $X(p^{\infty })^{\circ }$ is exactly the locus of elliptic curves $E$ with supersingular reduction, such that the formal group of $E$ has no extra endomorphisms.

We show that the compactly supported cohomology of certain $\text{U}(n,n)$- or $\text{Sp}(2n)$-Shimura varieties with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}_{1}(p^{\infty })$-level vanishes above the middle degree. The only assumption is that we work over a CM field $F$ in which the prime $p$ splits completely. We also give an application to Galois representations for torsion in the cohomology of the locally symmetric spaces for $\text{GL}_{n}/F$. More precisely, we use the vanishing result for Shimura varieties to eliminate the nilpotent ideal in the construction of these Galois representations. This strengthens recent results of Scholze [On torsion in the cohomology of locally symmetric varieties, Ann. of Math. (2) 182 (2015), 945–1066; MR 3418533] and Newton–Thorne [Torsion Galois representations over CM fields and Hecke algebras in the derived category, Forum Math. Sigma 4 (2016), e21; MR 3528275].

We establish a tilting equivalence for rational, homotopy-invariant cohomology theories defined over non-archimedean analytic varieties. More precisely, we prove an equivalence between the categories of motives of rigid analytic varieties over a perfectoid field $K$ of mixed characteristic and over the associated (tilted) perfectoid field $K^{\flat }$ of equal characteristic. This can be considered as a motivic generalization of a theorem of Fontaine and Wintenberger, claiming that the Galois groups of $K$ and $K^{\flat }$ are isomorphic.

Let $K_1$ and $K_2$ be complete discrete valuation fields of residue characteristic $p>0$. Let $\pi _{K_1}$ and $\pi _{K_2}$ be their uniformizers. Let $L_1/K_1$ and $L_2/K_2$ be finite extensions with compatible isomorphisms of rings $\mathcal{O}_{K_1}/(\pi _{K_1}^m)\, {\simeq }\, \mathcal{O}_{K_2}/(\pi _{K_2}^m)$ and $\mathcal{O}_{L_1}/(\pi _{K_1}^m)\, {\simeq }\, \mathcal{O}_{L_2}/(\pi _{K_2}^m)$ for some positive integer $m$ which is no more than the absolute ramification indices of $K_1$ and $K_2$. Let $j\leq m$ be a positive rational number. In this paper, we prove that the ramification of $L_1/K_1$ is bounded by $j$ if and only if the ramification of $L_2/K_2$ is bounded by $j$. As an application, we prove that the categories of finite separable extensions of $K_1$ and $K_2$ whose ramifications are bounded by $j$ are equivalent to each other, which generalizes a theorem of Deligne to the case of imperfect residue fields. We also show the compatibility of Scholl’s theory of higher fields of norms with the ramification theory of Abbes–Saito, and the integrality of small Artin and Swan conductors of $p$-adic representations with finite local monodromy.