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Martin Brandenburg
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Categorical characterization of quasi-compact schemes

I would like to know if it is possible to characterize the property "quasi-compact" in the category of schemes by means of a pure categorical language.

For example the property of being empty is categorical, because it just says that the scheme is initial. The terminal scheme is $\text{Spec}(\mathbb{Z})$, so this is also categorical. Further examples of categorical properties or schemes: Spectra of fields, the underlying set of a scheme (in particular surjective morphisms), connected schemes, $\text{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}_p)$, and much more, see here. The usual definition of quasi-compact involves open immersions, which are, a priori, not categorical.

Martin Brandenburg
  • 63.1k
  • 13
  • 207
  • 424