In the present paper, we consider the following problem: For a given closed point
x of a special fiber of a generically smooth family
X→
S of stable curves (with dim(
S)=1), is there a covering
Y→
X that is generically étale (i.e., étale over the generic fiber(s) of
X→
S, not only over the generic point(s) of
X), where
Y is also a family of stable curves, such that the image in
X of the non-smooth locus of
Y contains
x? Among other things, we prove that this is affirmative (possibly after replacing
S by a finite extension) in the case where
S is the spectrum of a discrete valuation ring of mixed characteristic whose residue field is algebraic over \mathbb{F}
p.
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