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Sean Lawton
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Maybe this "answer" is too far away from schemes to be what is desired. But here it goes anyway.

I believe in general that for complex affine varieties $X,Y$, that a morphism $f:X\to Y$ is étale iff it is a local analytic isomorphism in the analytic topology. When $X,Y$ are smooth, it is enough to just check that the tangent spaces are isomorphic at every point.

For example, again if I recall correctly, if a finite group $\Gamma$ acts on a connected and normal variety $X$ algebraically (preserves its coordinate ring), then the mapping $X\to X//\Gamma$ is étale if and only if $\Gamma$ acts freely (i.e. stabilizers are trivial).

One should be able tocan find projections like that who are not homeomorphic to their image; a necessary requirement for open immersions. The first thing that comes to mind is $\mathbb{C}^* \to \mathbb{C}^*//\mathbb{Z}_2 \cong \mathbb{C}$ where $\mathbb{Z}_2$ acts by For example, consider the étale map $z\mapsto 1/z$$\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})\to \mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})/\mathbb{Z}_2\cong \mathrm{SO}(3,\mathbb{C})$.

Conversely however, open immersions are always étale.

EDIT: I added some detail to the general statement about finite quotients, and replaced my original example since it was not correct. In particular, the tangent map to $\mathbb{C}^* \to \mathbb{C}^*//\mathbb{Z}_2 \cong \mathbb{C}$ (where $\mathbb{Z}_2$ acts by $z\mapsto 1/z$) is not an isomorphism at $\pm 1$, and so it is not étale at those points (it is at all other points though).

Maybe this "answer" is too far away from schemes to be what is desired. But here it goes anyway.

I believe in general that for complex affine varieties $X,Y$, that a morphism $f:X\to Y$ is étale iff it is a local analytic isomorphism in the analytic topology. When $X,Y$ are smooth, it is enough to just check that the tangent spaces are isomorphic at every point.

For example, again if I recall correctly, if a finite group $\Gamma$ acts on $X$ algebraically (preserves its coordinate ring), then the mapping $X\to X//\Gamma$ is étale.

One should be able to find projections like that who are not homeomorphic to their image; a necessary requirement for open immersions. The first thing that comes to mind is $\mathbb{C}^* \to \mathbb{C}^*//\mathbb{Z}_2 \cong \mathbb{C}$ where $\mathbb{Z}_2$ acts by $z\mapsto 1/z$.

Conversely however, open immersions are always étale.

Maybe this "answer" is too far away from schemes to be what is desired. But here it goes anyway.

I believe in general that for complex affine varieties $X,Y$, that a morphism $f:X\to Y$ is étale iff it is a local analytic isomorphism in the analytic topology. When $X,Y$ are smooth, it is enough to just check that the tangent spaces are isomorphic at every point.

For example, if a finite group $\Gamma$ acts on a connected and normal variety $X$ algebraically, then the mapping $X\to X//\Gamma$ is étale if and only if $\Gamma$ acts freely (i.e. stabilizers are trivial).

One can find projections like that who are not homeomorphic to their image; a necessary requirement for open immersions. For example, consider the étale map $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})\to \mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})/\mathbb{Z}_2\cong \mathrm{SO}(3,\mathbb{C})$.

Conversely however, open immersions are always étale.

EDIT: I added some detail to the general statement about finite quotients, and replaced my original example since it was not correct. In particular, the tangent map to $\mathbb{C}^* \to \mathbb{C}^*//\mathbb{Z}_2 \cong \mathbb{C}$ (where $\mathbb{Z}_2$ acts by $z\mapsto 1/z$) is not an isomorphism at $\pm 1$, and so it is not étale at those points (it is at all other points though).

Source Link
Sean Lawton
  • 8.5k
  • 3
  • 46
  • 78

Maybe this "answer" is too far away from schemes to be what is desired. But here it goes anyway.

I believe in general that for complex affine varieties $X,Y$, that a morphism $f:X\to Y$ is étale iff it is a local analytic isomorphism in the analytic topology. When $X,Y$ are smooth, it is enough to just check that the tangent spaces are isomorphic at every point.

For example, again if I recall correctly, if a finite group $\Gamma$ acts on $X$ algebraically (preserves its coordinate ring), then the mapping $X\to X//\Gamma$ is étale.

One should be able to find projections like that who are not homeomorphic to their image; a necessary requirement for open immersions. The first thing that comes to mind is $\mathbb{C}^* \to \mathbb{C}^*//\mathbb{Z}_2 \cong \mathbb{C}$ where $\mathbb{Z}_2$ acts by $z\mapsto 1/z$.

Conversely however, open immersions are always étale.