Questions tagged [schemes]
The first purpose of schemes theory is the geometrical study of solutions of algebraic systems of equations, not only over the real/complex numbers, but also over integer numbers (and more generally over any commutative ring with 1). It was finalized by Alexandre Grothendieck, during the 1950s and the 1960s.
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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-...
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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 (...
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Why "open immersion" rather than "open embedding"?
When topologists speak of an "immersion", they are quite deliberately describing something that is not necessarily an "embedding." But I cannot think of any use of the word "embedding" in algebraic ...
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Connections between various generalized algebraic geometries (Toen-Vaquié, Durov, Diers, Lurie)?
As far as I know, there are four possible ways to generalize algebraic geometry by 'simply' replacing the basic category of rings with something similar but more general:
$\bullet$ In the approach by ...
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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 $\mathrm{Spec}(B)\to\mathrm{Spec}(A)$. ...
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Mikhalkin's tropical schemes versus Durov's tropical schemes
In Mikhalkin's unfinished draft book on tropical geometry, (available here) (page 26) he defines a notion of tropical schemes. It seems to me that this definition is not just a wholesale adaptation of ...
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Useful, non-trivial general theorems about morphisms of schemes
I apologize in advance as this is not a research level question but rather one which could benefit from expert attention but is potentially useful mainly to novice mathematicians.
I'm trying to ...
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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 (...
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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 ...
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A closed subscheme of an open subscheme that is not an open subscheme of a closed subscheme?
A morphism $f: V \rightarrow X$ of schemes is a locally closed immersion if it can be factored into a closed immersion followed by an open immersion. It is not hard to show that if $f$ is an open ...
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What is the inverse image sheaf necessary for in algebraic geometry?
Given a continuous map $f \colon X \to Y$ of topological spaces, and a sheaf $\mathcal{F}$ on $Y$, the inverse image sheaf $f^{-1}\mathcal{F}$ on $X$ is the sheafification of the presheaf
$$U \mapsto \...
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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 ...
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Building algebraic geometry without prime ideals
$\DeclareMathOperator\Spec{Spec}\DeclareMathOperator\ev{ev}$Teaching algebraic geometry, in particular schemes, I am struggling to provide intuitive proofs. In particular, I find it counter-intuitive ...
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How much of scheme theory can you visualize?
I am just starting to learn about schemes and algebraic geometry in general, but I am finding it very hard to visualize things. For example, affine schemes that look like varieties are easily ...
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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 ...
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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" ...
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The Frobenius morphism
I found the following list on the "Frobenius Page" by David Ben-Zvi, described by the author as "an outdated collection of intuitive ways to think about raising to the p-th power".
Generates a ...
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A book on locally ringed spaces?
Are there enough interesting results that hold for general locally ringed spaces for a book to have been written? If there are, do you know of a book? If you do, pelase post it, one per answer and a ...
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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 "...
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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 ...
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Affine scheme on spec(A) of a ring A as the sheafification of a pre-sheave on spec(A)?
It is obvious that there is a parallel between the definition of structure sheaf of $\operatorname{Spec}(A)$
versus the sheafification of a pre-sheaf.
The definition of the sheaf $\mathscr F^+$ ...
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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 ...
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Hodge theory (after Deligne)
In an interview with Deligne on the Simons Foundation website, I heard Robert MacPherson say that at the time Deligne's papers on Hodge theory were being published, the results seemed absolutely ...
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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 ...
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Reduced scheme and closed points
In The Geometry of Schemes by Eisenbud and Harris, Exercise I-32 asks one to show that a scheme $X$ is reduced if and only if every local ring $\mathcal{O}_{X,p}$ is reduced for closed points $p \in X$...
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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 ...
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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 $...
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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. ...
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Research in applied algebraic geometry that essentially needs a background of modern algebraic geometry at Hartshorne's level
By applied algebraic geometry, I don't mean applications of algebraic geometry to pure mathematics or super-pure theoretical physics. Not number theory, representation theory, algebraic topology,...
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Does Zariski's Main Theorem come with a canonical factorization?
Zariski's Main Theorem (EGA IV, Thm 8.12.6): Suppose $Y$ is a quasi-compact and quasi-separated scheme, and $f:X\to Y$ is quasi-finite, separated, and finitely presented. Then $f$ factors as $X\...
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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 ...
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Are all formal schemes *really* Ind-schemes?
$\newcommand\LRS{\mathsf{LRS}}\newcommand\FormalSch{\mathsf{FormalSch}}\DeclareMathOperator\Spf{Spf}\newcommand\IndSch{\mathsf{IndSch}}\newcommand\ALRS{\mathsf{ALRS}}\newcommand\FSch{\mathsf{FSch}}$I'...
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Closed vs Rational Points on Schemes
Background: When Ueno builds the fully faithful functor from Var/k to Sch/k he mentions that the variety $V$ can be identified with the rational points of $t(V)$ over $k$. I know how to prove this on ...
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Functorial characterization of open subschemes?
Given a morphism of schemes f: U → X, can one determine when f is an isomorphism of U onto an open subscheme of X in terms of some induced functors between the categories of quasicoherent modules ...
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Why would one "attempt" to define points of a motive as $\operatorname{Ext}^1(\mathbb{Q}(0),M)$?
I'm a novice when it comes to motives. (I've read multiple introductory texts.)
I'm attempting to read Galois Theory and Diophantine geometry by Minhyong Kim. In it, he says that "One might attempt, ...
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Does every relative curve have a Picard scheme?
More precisely:
Let $X \to S$ be a smooth proper morphism of schemes such that the geometric fibers
are integral curves of genus $g$. Must the fppf relative Picard functor
$\operatorname{\bf ...
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What are the Benefits of Using Algebraic Spaces over Schemes?
I have heard that algebraic spaces have better formal properties than schemes. What are these benefits? Also, is there a natural way to go straight from affine schemes to algebraic spaces bypassing ...
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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 ...
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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?
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Can $\mathcal O_X$ be recognized abstract-nonsensically?
This question has been asked by Teimuraz Pirashvili many years ago. I forgot about it after a while and remembered only now by accident. He probably knows the answer by now, but I still don't.
In the ...
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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 ...
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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, ...
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"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....
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History of the functor of points
Until now, I thought the functor of points approach was introduced by Grothendieck at the 1973 Buffalo seminar.
However, in this note by Lawvere the author writes:
"I myself had learned the ...
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Is a direct sum of flabby sheaves flabby?
Consider a family of flabby (= flasque) sheaves $(\mathcal F_i)_{i\in I}$ of abelian groups on the topological space $X$.
My question : is their direct sum sheaf $\mathcal F=\oplus _{i\in I} \mathcal ...
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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?
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A book on elliptic curves using scheme theory?
I'm interested in learning some stuff about elliptic curves. I've been learning scheme theory, and I'm interested in seeing these tools "in action". It seems that the standard introduction to elliptic ...
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Construction of the petit Zariski topos out of the gros topos of a scheme
Let S be a scheme. Let (Sch/S) be a small category of schemes over S (including essentially all finitely presented schemes affine over S). Let E = (Sch/S)zar denote the gros Zariski topos with its ...
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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 ...
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Classical algebraic varieties VS $k$-schemes VS schemes
We know that there is an equivalence of categories between the two following categories:
$1)$ Classical varieties over $k$, where $k$ is an algebraically closed field. (Informally I mean locally ...