Lemma 32.5.1. Let W be a quasi-affine scheme of finite type over \mathbf{Z}. Suppose W \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R) is an open immersion into an affine scheme. There exists a finite type \mathbf{Z}-algebra A \subset R which induces an open immersion W \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(A). Moreover, R is the directed colimit of such subalgebras.
32.5 Absolute Noetherian Approximation
A nice reference for this section is Appendix C of the article by Thomason and Trobaugh [TT]. See Categories, Section 4.21 for our conventions regarding directed systems. We will use the existence result and properties of the limit from Section 32.2 without further mention.
Proof. Choose an affine open covering W = \bigcup _{i = 1, \ldots , n} W_ i such that each W_ i is a standard affine open in \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R). In other words, if we write W_ i = \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R_ i) then R_ i = R_{f_ i} for some f_ i \in R. Choose finitely many x_{ij} \in R_ i which generate R_ i over \mathbf{Z}. Pick an N \gg 0 such that each f_ i^ Nx_{ij} comes from an element of R, say y_{ij} \in R. Set A equal to the \mathbf{Z}-algebra generated by the f_ i and the y_{ij} and (optionally) finitely many additional elements of R. Then A works. Details omitted. \square
Lemma 32.5.2. Suppose given a cartesian diagram of rings
Let W' \subset \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R') be an open of the form W' = D(f_1) \cup \ldots \cup D(f_ n) such that t(f_ i) = s(g_ i) for some g_ i \in B and B_{g_ i} \cong R_{s(g_ i)}. Then B' \to R' induces an open immersion of W' into \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(B').
Proof. Set h_ i = (g_ i, f_ i) \in B'. More on Algebra, Lemma 15.5.3 shows that (B')_{h_ i} \cong (R')_{f_ i} as desired. \square
The following lemma is a precise statement of Noetherian approximation.
Lemma 32.5.3. Let S be a quasi-compact and quasi-separated scheme. Let V \subset S be a quasi-compact open. Let I be a directed set and let (V_ i, f_{ii'}) be an inverse system of schemes over I with affine transition maps, with each V_ i of finite type over \mathbf{Z}, and with V = \mathop{\mathrm{lim}}\nolimits V_ i. Then there exist
a directed set J,
an inverse system of schemes (S_ j, g_{jj'}) over J,
an order preserving map \alpha : J \to I,
open subschemes V'_ j \subset S_ j, and
isomorphisms V'_ j \to V_{\alpha (j)}
such that
the transition morphisms g_{jj'} : S_ j \to S_{j'} are affine,
each S_ j is of finite type over \mathbf{Z},
g_{jj'}^{-1}(V'_{j'}) = V'_ j,
S = \mathop{\mathrm{lim}}\nolimits S_ j and V = \mathop{\mathrm{lim}}\nolimits V'_ j, and
the diagrams
\vcenter { \xymatrix{ V \ar[d] \ar[rd] \\ V'_ j \ar[r] & V_{\alpha (j)} } } \quad \text{and}\quad \vcenter { \xymatrix{ V'_ j \ar[r] \ar[d] & V_{\alpha (j)} \ar[d] \\ V'_{j'} \ar[r] & V_{\alpha (j')} } }are commutative.
Proof. Set Z = S \setminus V. Choose affine opens U_1, \ldots , U_ m \subset S such that Z \subset \bigcup _{l = 1, \ldots , m} U_ l. Consider the opens
If we can prove the lemma successively for each of the cases
then the lemma will follow for V \subset S. In each case we are adding one affine open. Thus we may assume
S = U \cup V,
U affine open in S,
V quasi-compact open in S, and
V = \mathop{\mathrm{lim}}\nolimits _ i V_ i with (V_ i, f_{ii'}) an inverse system over a directed set I, each f_{ii'} affine and each V_ i of finite type over \mathbf{Z}.
Denote f_ i : V \to V_ i the projections. Set W = U \cap V. As S is quasi-separated, this is a quasi-compact open of V. By Lemma 32.4.11 (and after shrinking I) we may assume that there exist opens W_ i \subset V_ i such that f_{ii'}^{-1}(W_{i'}) = W_ i and such that f_ i^{-1}(W_ i) = W. Since W is a quasi-compact open of U it is quasi-affine. Hence we may assume (after shrinking I again) that W_ i is quasi-affine for all i, see Lemma 32.4.12.
Write U = \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(B). Set R = \Gamma (W, \mathcal{O}_ W), and R_ i = \Gamma (W_ i, \mathcal{O}_{W_ i}). By Lemma 32.4.7 we have R = \mathop{\mathrm{colim}}\nolimits _ i R_ i. Now we have the maps of rings
We set B_ i = \{ (b, r) \in B \times R_ i \mid s(b) = t_ i(r)\} so that we have a cartesian diagram
for each i. The transition maps R_ i \to R_{i'} induce maps B_ i \to B_{i'}. It is clear that B = \mathop{\mathrm{colim}}\nolimits _ i B_ i. In the next paragraph we show that for all sufficiently large i the composition W_ i \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R_ i) \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(B_ i) is an open immersion.
As W is a quasi-compact open of U = \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(B) we can find a finitely many elements g_ l \in B, l = 1, \ldots , m such that D(g_ l) \subset W and such that W = \bigcup _{l = 1, \ldots , m} D(g_ l). Note that this implies D(g_ l) = W_{s(g_ l)} as open subsets of U, where W_{s(g_ l)} denotes the largest open subset of W on which s(g_ l) is invertible. Hence
where the last equality is Properties, Lemma 28.17.1. Since W_{s(g_ l)} is affine this also implies that D(s(g_ l)) = W_{s(g_ l)} as open subsets of \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R). Since R = \mathop{\mathrm{colim}}\nolimits _ i R_ i we can (after shrinking I) assume there exist g_{l, i} \in R_ i for all i \in I such that s(g_ l) = t_ i(g_{l, i}). Of course we choose the g_{l, i} such that g_{l, i} maps to g_{l, i'} under the transition maps R_ i \to R_{i'}. Then, by Lemma 32.4.11 we can (after shrinking I again) assume the corresponding opens D(g_{l, i}) \subset \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R_ i) are contained in W_ i for l = 1, \ldots , m and cover W_ i. We conclude that the morphism W_ i \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R_ i) \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(B_ i) is an open immersion, see Lemma 32.5.2.
By Lemma 32.5.1 we can write B_ i as a directed colimit of subalgebras A_{i, p} \subset B_ i, p \in P_ i each of finite type over \mathbf{Z} and such that W_ i is identified with an open subscheme of \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(A_{i, p}). Let S_{i, p} be the scheme obtained by glueing V_ i and \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(A_{i, p}) along the open W_ i, see Schemes, Section 26.14. Here is the resulting commutative diagram of schemes:
The morphism S \to S_{i, p} arises because the upper right square is a pushout in the category of schemes. Note that S_{i, p} is of finite type over \mathbf{Z} since it has a finite affine open covering whose members are spectra of finite type \mathbf{Z}-algebras. We define a preorder on J = \coprod _{i \in I} P_ i by the rule (i', p') \geq (i, p) if and only if i' \geq i and the map B_ i \to B_{i'} maps A_{i, p} into A_{i', p'}. This is exactly the condition needed to define a morphism S_{i', p'} \to S_{i, p}: namely make a commutative diagram as above using the transition morphisms V_{i'} \to V_ i and W_{i'} \to W_ i and the morphism \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(A_{i', p'}) \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(A_{i, p}) induced by the ring map A_{i, p} \to A_{i', p'}. The relevant commutativities have been built into the constructions. We claim that S is the directed limit of the schemes S_{i, p}. Since by construction the schemes V_ i have limit V this boils down to the fact that B is the limit of the rings A_{i, p} which is true by construction. The map \alpha : J \to I is given by the rule j = (i, p) \mapsto i. The open subscheme V'_ j is just the image of V_ i \to S_{i, p} above. The commutativity of the diagrams in (5) is clear from the construction. This finishes the proof of the lemma. \square
Proposition 32.5.4. Let S be a quasi-compact and quasi-separated scheme. There exist a directed set I and an inverse system of schemes (S_ i, f_{ii'}) over I such that
the transition morphisms f_{ii'} are affine
each S_ i is of finite type over \mathbf{Z}, and
S = \mathop{\mathrm{lim}}\nolimits _ i S_ i.
Proof. This is a special case of Lemma 32.5.3 with V = \emptyset . \square
Comments (2)
Comment #8864 by Katha on
Comment #9225 by Stacks project on