The Stacks project

Proof. Fix $n$. Let $y \in Y$. We have to show that there exists an open neighbourhood $V$ of $y$ in $Y$ such that $E_ n \cap V$ is constructible in $V$. Thus we may assume that $Y$ is affine. Write $Y = \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(A)$ and $A = \mathop{\mathrm{colim}}\nolimits A_ i$ as a directed limit of finite type $\mathbf{Z}$-algebras. By Limits, Lemma 32.10.1 we can find an $i$ and a morphism $f_ i : X_ i \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(A_ i)$ of finite presentation whose base change to $Y$ recovers $f$. By Lemma 37.30.2 it suffices to prove the lemma for $f_ i$. Thus we reduce to the case where $Y$ is the spectrum of a Noetherian ring.

We will use the criterion of Topology, Lemma 5.16.3 to prove that $E_ n$ is constructible in case $Y$ is a Noetherian scheme. To see this let $Z \subset Y$ be an irreducible closed subscheme. We have to show that $E_ n \cap Z$ either contains a nonempty open subset or is not dense in $Z$. Let $\xi \in Z$ be the generic point. Then Lemma 37.30.1 shows that $n_{X/Y}$ is constant in a neighbourhood of $\xi$ in $Z$. This implies what we want. $\square$