Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 July 2013
Local models are schemes, defined in terms of linear-algebraic moduli problems, which
are used to model the étale-local structure of integral models of certain $p$-adic PEL Shimura varieties defined by Rapoport and Zink. In the
case of a unitary similitude group whose localization at
${ \mathbb{Q} }_{p} $ is ramified, quasi-split
$G{U}_{n} $, Pappas has observed that the original local models are typically
not flat, and he and Rapoport have introduced new conditions to the original moduli
problem which they conjecture to yield a flat scheme. In a previous paper, we proved
that their new local models are topologically flat when
$n$ is odd. In the present paper, we prove topological flatness when
$n$ is even. Along the way, we characterize the
$\mu $-admissible set for certain cocharacters
$\mu $ in types
$B$ and
$D$, and we show that for these cocharacters admissibility can be
characterized in a vertexwise way, confirming a conjecture of Pappas and
Rapoport.