Questions tagged [descent]
The descent tag has no usage guidance.
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What is descent theory?
I read the article in wikipedia, but I didn't find it totally illuminating. As far as I've understood, essentially you have a morphism (in some probably geometrical category) $Y \rightarrow X$, where ...
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Why are monadicity and descent related?
This question is probably too vague for experts, but I really don't know how to avoid it.
I've read in several places that under mild conditions, a morphism is an effective descent morphism iff the ...
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Cohomology of sheaves in different Grothendieck topologies
Suppose I have a sheaf $\mathcal{F}$ on the (small) étale site over $X$. By restriction, $\mathcal{F}$ is also a sheaf on $X$ (with the Zariski topology). When is it that the sheaf cohomologies (i.e. ...
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What is Barr-Beck?
This is a question about a naming convention. The Barr-Beck theorem (or simply Barr-Beck) is used a lot in descent theory over the past 30 years, almost invariably without a reference, like folklore.
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The derived category does not satisfy descent - example
One motivation for studying infinity categories is that the derived category does not satisfy Zariski descent, although the infinity categorical version does.
I would like to see an example of Zariski ...
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Can we describe equivariant vector bundles of free group action in terms of descent theory (Barr-Beck theorem)?
It is well known that for a compact topological group $G$ acts (say, from the right) freely on a compact space $X$. Then the category of equivariant complex vector bundles on $X$, $\text{Vect}_G(X)$, ...
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How is a descent datum the same as a comodule structure?
For a homomorphism of commutative rings $f:R\to S$, there are at least two notions of a descent datum for this map. One of these is to be an $S$-module $M$, with an isomorphism $M\otimes_R S\cong S\...
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What is etale descent?
What is etale descent? I have a vague notion that, for example, given a variety $V$ over a number field $K$, etale descent will produce (sometimes) a variety $V'$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ of the same ...
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Descent of Higher categorical structures along geometric morphisms
Let $f: \mathcal{E} \rightarrow \mathcal{T}$ be a geometric morphism between two (Grothendieck) toposes (or maybe more generally a bounded geometric morphism between elementary toposes).
It is well ...
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Difficulties with descent data as homotopy limit of image of Čech nerve
Apologies if this question is inappropriate for MO. It is not a research level question in any of the topics it addresses, I just don't see how a novice can go about answering it alone (I've tried ...
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Frobenius Descent
Let $S$ be a scheme of positive characteristic $p$ and $X$ a smooth $S$-scheme. Let $F:X\rightarrow X^{(p)}$ denote the relative Frobenius. A result by Cartier (often called Cartier descent or ...
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Looking for reference talking about relationship between descent theory and cohomological descent
I am now taking a course focusing on triangulated geometry. The professor has formulated the Beck's theorem for Karoubian triangulated category. The proof is very simple. Just using the universal ...
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Descent of functions along finite birational morphisms
Let $A\to B$ be a morphism of (unitary commutative) rings such that $B$ is module-finite over $A$ and there exists $f\in A$ which is a nonzerodivisor in $A$ and in $B$, with $A[1/f]\to B[1/f]$ an ...
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Les deux théorèmes d'existence en théorie formelle des modules
In Exposé 195 of the Séminaire Bourbaki, Grothendieck states the following two theorems of non-flat descent.
Theorem 1. Let $\Lambda$ be a noetherian ring and $C$ the category of $\Lambda$-algebras ...
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Counter-example to faithfully flat descent
I am looking for a counter example to the fact that a faithfully flat morphism is
an effective descent morphism for the category of quasi-coherent sheaves
when one forgets the quasi-compact hypothesis....
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Which simplicial objects are Čech nerves?
In 1-categories, a regular epimorphism is a coequalizer of some parallel pair. An effective epimorphism is one which coequalizes its kernel pair. In the presence of kernel pairs, regular and ...
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What is descent data (of higher categories), conceptually?
First consider a scheme $X$ with an open cover $\mathcal{U}=\{U_i\}$. An object with descent data on $\mathcal{U}$ is a collection $(\mathcal{E}_i,\phi_{ij})$ where $\mathcal{E}_i$ is a quasi-...
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Descent of sheaves under galois covering
Let $\pi: Y\rightarrow X$ be a finite Galois covering between normal projective varieties with Galois group $G$. Let $E$ be a coherent sheaf on $Y$ with a $G$-linearisation, i.e., there are ...
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Reinterpreting Galois descent over finite fields
This question is indirectly related to my previous question Is an elliptic curve that is isomorphic to its Frobenius conjugate defined over $\mathbb{F}_p$?
Let $\mathbb{F}_{q^n}/\mathbb{F}_q$ be an ...
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How does descent theory imply a sheaf is a scheme?
I've noticed that often authors will comment that "descent theory" shows that some sheaf in the étale topology is actually a scheme. I was wondering what result in descent theory actually implies ...
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Riccati differential equation and descent
I am currently trying to understand Euler's article E71 on the Riccati differential equation and its connection with continued fractions. Apparently Daniel Bernoulli had shown that the equation
$$ y' ...
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A model category for descent?
Recall that an $(\infty,1)$-category $C$ is said to have descent if for any small diagram $X:I\to M$ with (homotopy) colimit $\overline{X}$, the adjunction between $C/\overline{X}$ and "equifibered" $...
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How do $\infty$-categories allow us to do descent on the derived level?
I have heard that one application of $\infty$-categories is that they allow us to formulate a meaningful theory of descent for derived categories (say of sheaves on a scheme). While I'm sure the ...
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English Reference for the Bénabou-Roubaud theorem
The Bénabou-Roubaud theorem links fibrational descent theory with monadicity. Particularly, it says that given a bifibration satisfying the Beck-Chevalley condition w.r.t some arrow $p$ in the base ...
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what is Deligne's cohomological descent (and what are some examples)
As far as I understand Deligne's far reaching generalisation of Čech cohomology is called cohomological descent and is used to endow any variety with a (mixed) Hodge structure.
Again, AFAIU, the idea ...
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Non-trivial automorphisms and descent
In this expository paper by Low it says:
Roughly
speaking, a topos in the sense of Grothendieck is the category of sheaves on a
kind of generalised space whose “points” may have non-trivial ...
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Descent of closed subschemes over finite fields
Let $p$ be a prime number, and $k$ a finite field with $q=p^n$ elements. Let $X$ be a scheme over $k$ and denote by $X'$ its base change to an algebraic closure $\bar k$ of $k$. Denote by $F_X:X\...
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Homotopical descent information contained in the Dwyer-Kan function complexes of a presheaf category?
Recall that the category of sheaves on some site $C$ equipped with a grothendieck topology $\tau$ is equivalent to the localization of the category of presheaves $W^{-1}Psh(C)$ at $W$ where $W$ is the ...
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modular forms, invertible sheaves, and quotients
I'm very confused about some contradicatory statements, and I hope someone can help me clarify this.
Let $\Gamma$ be a congruence subgroup. It is well known that modular forms of weight $k$ for $\...
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Pushouts of commutative pseudomonoids
Let $(\mathcal{C},\otimes)$ be a symmetric monoidal bicategory. Assume that $\mathcal{C}$ has bicategorical coequalizers which are preserved by $\otimes$ in each variable. My question is if then the ...
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Pure morphisms which are not faithfully flat
Joyal and Tierney proved that morphisms of rings which are of effective descent are exactly those morphisms $\phi:R\to S$ such that $\phi$ presents $S$ as a pure $R$-module. Grothendieck had ...
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Schemes do not form a stack in the etale topology?
As I understand, one of the reasons for "bootstrapping" to the category of algebraic spaces before constructing the category of Artin stacks is that algebraic spaces form a stack in the etale (at ...
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Are associated bundles representable in schemes?
I have seen the following claim without proof in more than one paper, but it is sufficiently general that I suspect it is stated too strongly to be true:
Let $G$ be an affine group scheme (say, ...
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References to SGA 8 and descent theory
In Geometric Invariant Theory, by Mumford, Fogarty, and Kirwan, if there is a mention of descent theory, it almost always comes along with a reference to SGA 8, Theorem 5.2 (see the end of the proof ...
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Galois descent for schemes over fields
Let $K\subset L$ be a finite galois extension of fields (the case I have in mind is $K=\mathbb{R},L=\mathbb{C}$). Given a scheme $X$ over $K$ by pulling back to $L$ we get a scheme $Y=X\times _K L$ ...
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Basic example of derived descent
I've been trying to understand the Adams spectral sequence, and I've gotten myself confused about how derived descent is supposed to work, so I would like to understand a simple example.
Given a ...
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Infinite Galois descent for finitely generated commutative algebras over a field
Let $k_0$ be a field of characteristic 0, and let $k$ is a fixed algebraic closure of $k_0$.
Write $G={\rm Gal}(k/k_0)$.
Let $A_0$ be a finitely generated commutative $k_0$-algebra with a unit.
Then ...
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Which morphisms of ring spectra are of effective descent for modules?
There is a well understood bifibration of $\infty$-categories over the $\infty$-category of commutative ring spectra whose fiber over a ring $R$ is the category of $R$-module spectra. This is in ...
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fpqc stackification
I am reading Lurie's Tannakian paper (http://www.math.harvard.edu/~lurie/papers/Tannaka.pdf) and I am confused about one point.
At the end of page 3 he defines a stack-hom in any topos, which is ...
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Faithfully flat descent in complex analytic geometry
A common technique for constructing objects (sheaves) and morphisms in algebraic geometry is faithfully flat descent. Roughly speaking this consists on constructing an object or a morphism "...
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Does a field extension define an effective descent morphism for locally ringed spaces?
Let $K'/K$ be an extension of fields and set $X=\operatorname{Spec}(K)$ and $X'=\operatorname{Spec}(K')$. As the category of locally ringed spaces has fibre products (see arXiv:1103.2139 or here) we ...
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Does projectiveness descend along field extensions?
Background: Properness is a much more robust notion than projectiveness. For example, properness descends along arbitrary fpqc covers (see, for example, Vistoli's Notes on Grothendieck topologies, ...
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Descent for $K(1)$-local spectra
For odd primes, we have an equalizer diagram for the $K(1)$- local sphere given by
$$L_{K(1)}S \rightarrow K{{ \xrightarrow{\Psi^g}}\atop{\xrightarrow[i_K ] {}}} K$$
where $g$ is a topological ...
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Geometric intuition for the condition of Galois descent
Continuing in my attempts to understand bits and pieces of Borceux and Janelidze's Galois Theories, I've just realized that I don't have any geometric intuition for the most convenient ...
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Why does the first Cech cohomology classify twisted forms?
Suppose I have a faithfully flat cover of schemes $\phi:X\to Y$, and a sheaf $F$ on $Y$. I might be interested in so-called ``twisted forms for $F$." That is, sheaves $F'$ on $Y$ such that $\phi^\ast(...
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If $M\otimes_S T$ is an $A$-module, is $M$ an $A$-module?
Let $\mathbb{C}$ be the field of the complex numbers. Let $R=\mathbb{C}[x]$, $T=\mathbb{C}\langle x\rangle$ be the ring of entire series with convergence radius at least $1$, and let $S=\mathbb{C}\...
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Higher descent cohomology
Descent cohomology for a comonad is defined at degrees 0 and 1 by Mesablishvili in his paper "On Descent Cohomology" (as well as by many other authors in many other contexts). For a comonad $\bot$ on ...
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Quasi-syntomic descent and prismatic F-crystals
I am reading Bhatt and Scholze's paper on F-crystals, and they seem to be using the following result in the proof of Theorem 5.6:
let $X \to Y$ be a quasisyntomic cover of formal schemes over $\...
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Examples of descent in basic algebraic geometry
I'm studying descent theory and I recall that there were multiple instances before where I heard something like "we can prove this as follows, but this is just descent applied to [...]". ...
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Algebraic model for the abelian category of descent data for modules in the non-affine case
Let $f: X \to Y$ be a morphism of schemes. I'd like to have a completely algebraic description of the belian category of descent data for modules along $f$. Here's my attempt:
The category of quasi-...