All Questions
123 questions
79
votes
12
answers
13k
views
Is there a high-concept explanation for why characteristic 2 is special?
The structure of the multiplicative groups of $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ or of $\mathbb{Z}_p$ is the same for odd primes, but not for $2.$ Quadratic reciprocity has a uniform statement for odd primes, ...
- 118k
234
votes
16
answers
57k
views
What elementary problems can you solve with schemes?
I'm a graduate student who's been learning about schemes this year from the usual sources (e.g. Hartshorne, Eisenbud-Harris, Ravi Vakil's notes). I'm looking for some examples of elementary self-...
38
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Do Grothendieck universes matter for an algebraic geometer?
I recently learned that some parts of SGA require axioms beyond ZFC. I am just a simple algebraic geometer so I am trying to understand how can this fact impact my life (you may have engaged in a ...
user138661
16
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Is there an example of a formally smooth morphism which is not smooth?
A morphism of schemes is formally smooth and locally of finite presentation iff it is smooth.
What happens if we drop the finitely presented hypothesis? Of course, locally of finite presentation is ...
- 10.5k
182
votes
33
answers
32k
views
What should be learned in a first serious schemes course?
I've just finished teaching a year-long "foundations of algebraic
geometry" class. It
was my third time teaching it, and my notes are gradually converging.
I've enjoyed it for a number of reasons (...
52
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Ring-theoretic characterization of open affines?
Background
Recall that, given two commutative rings $A$ and $B$, the set of morphisms of rings $A\to B$ is in bijection with the set of morphisms of schemes $\mathrm{Spec}(B)\to\mathrm{Spec}(A)$. ...
- 5,407
34
votes
2
answers
3k
views
The work of E. Artin and F. K. Schmidt on (what are now called) the Weil conjectures.
I was reading Dieudonne's "On the history of the Weil conjectures" and found two things that surprised me. Dieudonne makes some assertions about the work of Artin and Schmidt which are no doubt ...
- 41.4k
28
votes
4
answers
7k
views
Extending vector bundles on a given open subscheme
Let $U$ be a dense open subscheme of an integral noetherian scheme $X$ and let $E$ be a vector bundle on $U$. Suppose that the complement $Y$ of $U$ has codimension $\textrm{codim}(Y,X) \geq 2$. Let $...
- 9,497
26
votes
1
answer
5k
views
What are the epimorphisms in the category of schemes?
Is there a known characterization of epimorphisms in the category of schemes?
It is easy to see that a morphism $f : X \to Y$ such that the underlying map $\lvert f\rvert$ is surjective and the ...
- 63.1k
22
votes
1
answer
7k
views
What are the monomorphisms in the category of schemes?
Someone recently asked what the epimorphisms in the category of schemes are; the other day I had been wondering about the similar question: what are the monomorphisms in the category of schemes? I am ...
- 1,329
11
votes
3
answers
2k
views
What is the difference between Grothendieck groups K_0(X) vs K^0(X) on schemes?
More specifically, I was wondering if there are well-known conditions to put on $X$ in order to make $K_0(X)\simeq K^0(X)$. Wikipedia says they are the same if $X$ is smooth. It seems to me that you ...
- 970
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Diagonal is representable then any morphism is representable
Ariyan Javanpeykar said here in comments that,
If the diagonal is representable, then isn't any morphism $S\rightarrow \mathcal{X}$ with $S$ a scheme representable?
I could not find the statement (...
- 6,023
32
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Spectrum of the Grothendieck ring of varieties
Here's a problem that may ultimately require just simple algebraic-geometry skills to be solved, or perhaps it's very deep and will never be solved at all. From the comments, some literature and my ...
- 15.1k
25
votes
4
answers
6k
views
When is an irreducible scheme quasi-compact?
The standard examples of schemes that are not quasi-compact are either non-noetherian or have an infinite number of irreducible components. It is also easy to find non-separated irreducible examples. ...
- 5,039
20
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Geometric generic fibre
This is a pretty elementary question about schemes, but it came up in the course of research, so let's try it here rather than MSE.
Question 1: Are the fibres of a family of complex varieties ...
19
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Elkies' supersingularity theorem in higher dimension
The following is a theorem of Elkies:
Let $X$ be an elliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}$. Then there are infinitely many primes $p$ such that the action of Frobenius on $H^1(\mathcal{O}, X)$ is zero.
...
- 156k
19
votes
1
answer
956
views
"Real algebraic varieties" vs finite type separated reduced $\mathbb{R}$-schemes with dense $\mathbb{R}$-points
This question is partly motivated by a few comments here. Let me denote by $R$ the (real-closed) field of real numbers $\mathbb{R}$; everything is probably the same over an arbitrary real-closed field....
- 23.4k
18
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Homotopy types of schemes
Let $X$ be a scheme over $\mathbb{C}$.
When does the topological space $X\left(\mathbb{C}\right)$ of $\mathbb{C}$-points have the homotopy type of a finite CW-complex?
When does the topological ...
- 15.5k
11
votes
1
answer
1k
views
About the relation between the categories $\text{Sch}$, $\text{LRS}$ and $\text{RS}$
I've asked this question https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1407451/about-the-relation-between-the-categories-textsch-textlrs-and-text on math.stackexchange , however I don't think I will ...
- 2,227
10
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Are higher etale homotopy groups topological groups in a natural way?
Since etale fundamental group of a scheme $X$ is the group of natural automorphisms of the fibre functor of the category of finite etale covers of $X$, it comes with structure of a topological group. ...
- 723
8
votes
1
answer
747
views
Deligne's exterior power
In "Catégories Tannakiennes", Deligne defines the $n$th exterior power of an object $A$ of an abelian tensor category $\mathcal{C}$ as the image of the morphism
$$p : A^{\otimes n} \to A^{\otimes n}, ...
- 63.1k
7
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Chevalley's Theorem on Constructible Sets
I'm having a hard time understanding the theorem in the title, more specifically the proof of the related fact that the image of a dominant morphism contains a dense open set of it's closure. (My ...
- 75
6
votes
0
answers
343
views
Are all stabilizer groups of the co-adjoint action smooth?
Let $k$ be a (non-archimedean) local field of positive characteristic $p$ and $\mathfrak{n}$ be any finite-dimensional nilpotent Lie algebra over $k$ with nilpotence length $l<p$. It is well-known ...
- 1,702
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Smooth morphism (algebraic geometry) vs. Submersion (differential geo) & Ehresman's Lemma
I have a general question about the motivation behind to definition the smooth morphisms
as we know it from algebraic geometry. The most common
definition of a smooth morphism $: X \to Y$ between two ...
- 5,986
2
votes
0
answers
309
views
Looking for the exact and the precise statement of Ogus conjecture
I have been looking for several weeks for the exact and the precise statement of Ogus conjecture, but, I cannot find it.
The only book which made me discover the statement of this conjecture is that ...
- 595
2
votes
1
answer
574
views
Noetherian stalks imply locally Noetherian
Is there an example of a non-Noetherian integral affine scheme with Noetherian space and Noetherian stalks? What if we replace "integral" with "reduced"?
user139943
1
vote
1
answer
241
views
locally closed orbits in metric Hausdorff topology
I learned the following fact from Bruhat and Tits's paper "Homomorphismes “abstraits” de groupes algebriques simples" Section 3.18 that
Let $k$ be a local field. Suppose that a $k$-group $H$ acts $k$...
- 1,702
1
vote
0
answers
79
views
Is every classical prevariety the set of $k$-rational points of an schematic prevariety? (when $k$ is not algebraically closed)
$\def\cpvar{\mathsf{CPVar}}
\def\spvar{\mathsf{SPVar}}
\def\Spec{\operatorname{Spec}}
\def\class{\mathrm{class}}
\def\sO{\mathcal{O}}
\def\Hom{\operatorname{Hom}}$This question is a follow-up to this ...
1
vote
1
answer
591
views
Argument for non-existence of elliptic curve over $\mathbb{C}[t, t^{-1}]$
I have a couple of questions about this answer by Noam D. Elkies showing that there exist no elliptic curve $E$ over $\mathbb{C}[t, t^{-1}]$ having nonconstant $j_E$-invariant.
The strategy is to ...
- 5,986
42
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Commutative rings to algebraic spaces in one jump?
Typically, in the functor of points approach, one constructs the category of algebraic spaces by first constructing the category of locally representable sheaves for the global Zariski topology (...
42
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Arbitrary products of schemes don't exist, do they?
Thinking of arbitrary tensor products of rings, $A=\otimes_i A_i$ ($i\in I$, an arbitrary index set), I have recently realized that $Spec(A)$ should be the product of the schemes $Spec(A_i)$, a ...
- 47.5k
37
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Is there a nice proof of the fact that there are (p-1)/24 supersingular elliptic curves in characteristic p?
If $k$ is a characteristic $p$ field containing a subfield with $p^2$ elements (e.g., an algebraic closure of $\mathbb{F}_p$), then the number of isomorphism classes of supersingular elliptic curves ...
- 45.7k
31
votes
7
answers
4k
views
Categorical construction of the category of schemes?
The answer to the following question is probably well known or the question itself is well known not to have a reasonable answer. In the latter case could you please let me know what the "right" ...
- 23.5k
29
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Why and how did preschemes become schemes?
Originally (e.g., in the first edition of EGA and in Mumford's Red Book), what are now called "schemes" were referred to as "preschemes." The word "scheme" was reserved for what are now called "...
28
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Intuitive pictures in characteristic p
This is a tough one, but does anyone know of any images that recall characteristic p geometry (over algebraically closed fields) in some sense? It is not enough if it is some picture that can be also ...
- 2,215
27
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Reference for de Rham cohomology in positive characteristic
It is known in characteristic $0$ that (algebraic) de Rham cohomology is a Weil cohomology theory. However, in characteristic $p > 0$ it isn't, if only because it has mod $p$ coefficients, whereas ...
- 28.8k
27
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Motivation for relative schemes: why should one work with schemes over a ringed topos?
Recently I've been trying to learn more about relative schemes. These were developed in M. Hakim's thesis Topos annelés et schémas relatifs under Grothendieck's guidance and appear in many of later ...
- 11.8k
26
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Intuition behind generic points in a scheme
In a scheme, each point is a generic point of its closure. In particular each closed point is a generic point of itself (the set containing it only), but that's perhaps of little interest. A point ...
- 1,141
25
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Status of the Euler characteristic in characteristic p
In the introduction to the Asterisque 82-83 volume on `Caractérisque d'Euler-Poincaré, Verdier writes:
Enfin signalons que la situation en caractéristique positive est loin
d'être aussi ...
- 8,723
21
votes
5
answers
5k
views
Mirror symmetry mod p?! ... Physics mod p?!
In his answer to this question, Scott Carnahan mentions "mirror symmetry mod p". What is that?
(Some kind of) Gromov-Witten invariants can be defined for varieties over fields other than $\mathbb{C}$...
- 21k
20
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Equivalent statements of the Riemann hypothesis in the Weil conjectures
In the cohomological incarnation, the Riemann hypothesis part of the Weil conjectures for a smooth proper scheme of finite type over a finite field with $q$ elements says that: the eigenvalues of ...
- 671
18
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Lifting varieties to characteristic zero.
If you want to compute crystalline cohomology of a smooth proper variety $X$ over a perfect field $k$ of characteristic $p$, the first thing you might want to try is to lift $X$ to the Witt ring $W_k$ ...
- 4,015
18
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Images and monomorphisms of schemes
If $X$ is an object in an arbitrary category, there is a natural definition of a subobject of $X$ as a monomorphism into $X$ (or really an equivalence class of monomorphisms). If $X$ is a scheme, ...
- 2,806
18
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Is there an example of a variety over the complex numbers with no embedding into a smooth variety?
Is there an example of a variety over the complex numbers with no embedding into a smooth variety?
- 10.5k
17
votes
2
answers
1k
views
What is an explicit example of a variety X which is finite over Spec F_p but which does not lift to a scheme Y which is finite and flat over Spec Z_p?
What is an explicit example of a variety X which is finite over Spec F_p but which does not lift to a scheme Y which is finite and flat over Spec Z_p?
- 10.5k
15
votes
2
answers
814
views
Can the failure of the multiplicativity of Euler factors at bad primes be corrected?
Warning: This one of those does-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this-vague-problem questions, and not an actual mathematics question at all.
If $X$ is a scheme of finite type over a finite field, then the ...
- 9,418
15
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Number of curves over a finite field
Let $K$ be a finite field. Is there a formula for the number of isomorphism classes of genus $g$ smooth curves over $K$?
In other words does there exists a formula for the number of rational points ...
- 8,998
14
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Do varieties with ample canonical bundle have finite automorphism group in small characteristic?
Suppose $X$ is a smooth projective variety over a field $k$, with ample canonical bundle. If $\operatorname{char}(k)=0$ or $\operatorname{char}(k)>\dim(X)$ and $X$ lifts to $W_2(k)$ (thanks ...
- 23k
12
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Do disjoint unions and fiber products commute?
Do disjoint unions and fiber products commute?
In other words, is the following statement true?
Statement: Let $C$ be a category with (infinite) coproducts and fiber products. Let {$U_{i}$} be a ...
- 945
12
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Is the degree of a finite morphism stable by base change
Let $f:X\longrightarrow Y$ be a finite morphism of schemes of degree $n$. Let $S\to Y$ be a morphism of schemes.
Is the degree of the finite morphism $X\times_Y S \longrightarrow S$ equal to $n$?
If ...
- 225