Differential equations in characteristic 0 and in characteristic p.
Fundamental work of P. Deligne on differential equations is the following. Let X/C be a smooth, connected algebraic variety. The Riemann--Hilbert correspondence associates to an integrable connection with regular singularities a representation of the topological fundamental group πtop1. This is an equivalence of Tannaka categories and it provides an algebraic interpretation of the algebraic hull πtop,alg1 of πtop1.
For a variety X in characteristic p>0 the good differential equations, called stratified bundles, are rather complicated objects. The Tannaka group of the category of stratified bundles on X is seen as a replacement for a non existing topological fundamental group.
There are relations with the etale fundamental group (which exists in characteristic p>0) and there is a theory of regular singularities which does not involve resolution of singularities. The theory of stratifications works quite well. The main difficulty in characteristic p>0 is the lack of explicit examples. In this lecture we provide examples and methods for their construction in the 1-dimensional case.