6
$\begingroup$

I am learning about flatness for the first time and I cannot wrap my head around why the definition with tensor products of a flat module implies geometrically that 1-parameter families of schemes have limits.

I came across these lecture notes by Alexander Ritter which give a very explicit example:

enter image description here

However, I don't understand why $\pi$ flat over $0 \iff$ $X_0$ is $\lim_b X_b$. Any help to understand this particular example or a different intuition of this geometric implication would be very much appreciated.

$\endgroup$
6
  • $\begingroup$ For me, it helps to show that the limit statement is equivalent to the fact that no irreducible or embedded component of $X$ is supported on the fiber $X_0$. Then you can "see" that flatness looks like the absence of "vertical" components, so it literally looks flat. Also I think all of these equivalences need some assumption on the base $B$, like regularity. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 18, 2022 at 19:31
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ In the setting of those notes, for $X = \operatorname{Spec}(A)$, by definition, the closure of $X^*$ is $\operatorname{Spec}$ of the image of $A$ in $A[t^{-1}]$. The map from $A$ to $A[t^{-1}]$ is injective if and only if there's no element in $A$ annihilated by $t$, which is the same as $A$ being flat over the DVR $k[t]_{(t)}$. $\endgroup$
    – sdr
    Commented Mar 18, 2022 at 19:36
  • $\begingroup$ You can look in Mumford, The red book of varieties and schemes (2nd edition), III.10 for geometric intuition. See especially Proposition 1 and Examples Q and R, for which you can work out the characterisation mentioned in Ritter's notes. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 18, 2022 at 19:59
  • $\begingroup$ @FrançoisBrunault Example Q and R are not satisfactory — they are consequences of Proposition 2, which says that a finitely presented module is flat if and only if it is locally free, but this is not usually how flat families appear (usually very non-finite). By the way, the 2nd edition is not really a new version, but a worse version than the 1st — it introduces a lot of typos during TeXification. $\endgroup$
    – Z. M
    Commented Mar 18, 2022 at 21:33
  • $\begingroup$ This is also proposition 9.7, Hartshorne chapter 2, where he proves (rather tersely) that a punctured one parameter flat family fills up uniquely as the (scheme theoretic) closure. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 18, 2022 at 23:10

1 Answer 1

4
$\begingroup$

Note that $\overline{X^*}$ is the scheme-theoretic image of $X^* \to \mathbf A^n_B$: if $X^*$ is reduced, this agrees with the reduced induced structure (see for instance exercise II.3.11 in Hartshorne), and otherwise this is the only sensible definition of the closure of a locally closed subscheme.

In particular, if $X^* \subseteq \mathbf A^n_{B^*}$ is cut out by some ideal $I^*$, then by definition $\overline{X^*} \subseteq \mathbf A^n_B$ is cut out by the contracted ideal $\overline{I^*} = \iota^{-1}(I^*)$, where $\iota \colon B[x_1,\ldots,x_n] \to B^*[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ is the inclusion. In other words, the factorisation $X^* \to \overline{X^*} \to \mathbf A^n_B$ corresponds to the image factorisation $$B[x_1,\ldots,x_n] \twoheadrightarrow B[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\big/\ \overline{I^*} \hookrightarrow B^*[x_1,\ldots,x_n]/I^*$$ of rings.

Any module $M$ over the principal ideal domain $B$ is flat over $0$ if and only if it is $t$-torsion-free. Since $B^*[x_1,\ldots,x_n]/I^*$ is a $B^*$-algebra, the element $t$ is invertible there, so $B^*[x_1,\ldots,x_n]/I^*$ is always flat over $0$. Thus, $B[x_1,\ldots,x_n]/\overline{I^*}$ is also flat, since a submodule of a $t$-torsion-free module is $t$-torsion free.

So if $I \subseteq B[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$ is an ideal and $I^*$ its extension to $B^*[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$, then we certainly see that $I = \overline{I^*}$ implies that $B[x_1,\ldots,x_n]/I$ is flat. Conversely, we always have $I \subseteq \overline{I^*}$, and the kernel of $$B[x_1,\ldots,x_n]/I \twoheadrightarrow B^*[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\big/\ \overline{I^*}$$ is $t$-torsion since this map becomes an isomorphism after inverting $t$. Thus, we see that $B[x_1,\ldots,x_n]/I$ is $t$-torsion-free if and only if $I = \overline{I^*}$.

Of course there is nothing special about $B[x_1,\ldots,x_n]$, and the same argument works for any $B$-algebra $R$ (or $B$-scheme $Y \to \operatorname{Spec} B$).

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .