Elimination of Ramification II: Henselian Rationality

Abstract: We prove in arbitrary characteristic that an immediate valued algebraic function field $F$ of transcendence degree 1 over a tame field $K$ is contained in the henselization of $K(x)$ for a suitably chosen $x\in F$. This eliminates ramification in such valued function fields. We give generalizations of this result, relaxing the assumption on $K$. Our theorems have important applications to local uniformization and to the model theory of valued fields in positive and mixed characteristic.