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Let $X$ be a topological space equipped with an action of a group $G$. In the Tohoku paper, Grothendieck defined "$G$-sheaves" on $X$ as sheaves equipped with $G$-action on the etale space, compatible with the $G$-action on $X$. It is more or less the same as $G$-equivariant objects in the category of sheaves on $X$ with respect to $G$ acting on this category by endofunctors, but the notion of "$G$-equivariant sheaves" is taken over by sheaves equivariant with respect to a group scheme or to a continuous action of a topological group.

Suppose now that the action of $G$ on $X$ is free. Then the category of $G$-sheaves on $X$ is equivalent to the category of sheaves on $X/G$. I need this statement when $G$ acts on a manifold $X$ properly discontinuously, but I suppose this is true in all generality. I have a proof which works (at least for properly discontinuous actions), but it's a bit too long for such a classical-looking statement, so I am asking for a reference I can use for this. I spent quite a few hours googling and browsing the Stacks Project, without avail.

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    $\begingroup$ My belief, but I am no expert, is that $G$-sheaves on $X$ are basically sheaves for the transformation groupoid $G\ltimes X$. The free action makes this transformation groupoid principal and I think under reasonable hypotheses, like properly discontinuous action, the orbit space of this principal groupoid is Morita equivalent to the groupoid and hence has an equivalent category of sheaves. But I don't know the technical hypotheses to make this work 100% off the top of my head. So maybe the groupoid literature might come up with an answer. $\endgroup$ Commented May 16, 2022 at 19:50
  • $\begingroup$ See example 32 of personal.psu.edu/pxx2/book.pdf for instance. $\endgroup$ Commented May 16, 2022 at 19:54
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    $\begingroup$ You do need the action to be free and proper in general for this to be true. $\endgroup$ Commented May 16, 2022 at 20:27
  • $\begingroup$ well, in my case it is a non-ramified covering of smooth manifolds $\endgroup$ Commented May 18, 2022 at 21:48

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