Witt equivalence of function fields of curves over local fields

Abstract: Two fields are Witt equivalent if their Witt rings of symmetric bilinear forms are isomorphic. Witt equivalent fields can be understood to be fields having the same quadratic form theory. The behavior of finite fields, local fields, global fields, as well as function fields of curves defined over archimedean local fields under Witt equivalence is well-understood. Numbers of classes of Witt equivalent fields with finite numbers of square classes are also known in some cases. Witt equivalence of general function fields over global fields was studied in the earlier work [13] by the authors, and applied to study Witt equivalence of function fields of curves over global fields. In this paper we extend these results to local case, i.e. we discuss Witt equivalence of function fields of curves over local fields. As an application, we show that, modulo some additional assumptions, Witt equivalence of two such function fields implies Witt equivalence of underlying local fields.