Profinite groups with a cyclotomic $p$-orientation

Profinite groups with a cyclotomic $p$-orientation are introduced and studied. The special interest in this class of groups arises from the fact that any absolute Galois group $G_{K}$ of a field $K$ is indeed a profinite group with a cyclotomic $p$-orientation $\theta_{K,p}\colon G_{K}\to\mathbb{Z}_p^\times$ which is even Bloch-Kato. The same is true for its maximal pro-$p$ quotient $G_{K}(p)$ provided the field $K$ contains a primitive $p^{th}$-root of unity. The class of cyclotomically $p$-oriented profinite groups (resp. pro-$p$ groups) which are Bloch-Kato is closed with respect to inverse limits, free product and certain fibre products. For profinite groups with a cyclotomic $p$-orientation the classical Artin-Schreier theorem holds. Moreover, Bloch-Kato pro-$p$ groups with a cyclotomic orientation satisfy a strong form of Tits' alternative, and the elementary type conjecture formulated by I. Efrat can be restated that the only finitely generated indecomposable torsion free Bloch-Kato pro-$p$ groups with a cyclotomic orientation should be Poincar\'e duality pro-$p$ groups of dimension less or equal to $2$.