Let $(A,\mathfrak{m})$ be a local ring, and let $A^{\mathrm{sh}}$ be the strict henselization of $A$ at $\mathfrak{m}$. Let me denote $A^{\mathrm{sh},\mathrm{fin}}$ for the filtered colimit of finite etale $A$-algebras (with a fixed map to the separable closure of $A/\mathfrak{m}$). There is a canonical map \begin{align} \varphi : A^{\mathrm{sh},\mathrm{fin}} \to A^{\mathrm{sh}} \end{align} of $A$-algebras. When is $\varphi$ an isomorphism?
Remarks/thoughts:
- This is true if $A$ is a field.
- We can consider using Zariski's Main Theorem (say this version) in some way. If $A^{\mathrm{sh},\mathrm{fin}} \to B$ is an etale ring map, there exists a factorization $A^{\mathrm{sh},\mathrm{fin}} \to C \to B$ where $A^{\mathrm{sh},\mathrm{fin}} \to C$ is finite and $C \to B$ induces an open immersion $\operatorname{Spec} B \to \operatorname{Spec} C$, but I don't know whether $A^{\mathrm{sh},\mathrm{fin}} \to C$ is etale (or whether it can be made etale after a refinement of $B$). It seems we can make $A^{\mathrm{sh},\mathrm{fin}} \to C$ finite flat, namely using the structure theorem for etale ring maps (e.g. 00UE) which says we can take $C = A^{\mathrm{sh},\mathrm{fin}}[t]/(f(t))$ for some monic polynomial $f(t) \in A^{\mathrm{sh},\mathrm{fin}}[t]$ and $B$ to be a principal localization of $C$.