The Stacks project

Lemma 10.46.11. Let $\varphi : R \to S$ be a ring map such that

  1. the kernel of $\varphi $ is locally nilpotent, and

  2. $S$ is generated as an $R$-algebra by elements $x$ such that there exist $n > 0$ and a polynomial $P(T) \in R[T]$ whose image in $S[T]$ is $(T - x)^ n$.

Then $\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(S) \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R)$ is a homeomorphism and $R \to S$ induces purely inseparable extensions of residue fields. Moreover, conditions (1) and (2) remain true on arbitrary base change.

Proof. We may replace $R$ by $R/\mathop{\mathrm{Ker}}(\varphi )$, see Lemma 10.46.1. Assumption (2) implies $S$ is generated over $R$ by elements which are integral over $R$. Hence $R \subset S$ is integral (Lemma 10.36.7). In particular $\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(S) \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(R)$ is surjective and closed (Lemmas 10.36.17, 10.41.6, and 10.36.22).

Let $x \in S$ be one of the generators in (2), i.e., there exists an $n > 0$ be such that $(T - x)^ n \in R[T]$. Let $\mathfrak p \subset R$ be a prime. The $\kappa (\mathfrak p) \otimes _ R S$ ring is nonzero by the above and Lemma 10.17.9. If the characteristic of $\kappa (\mathfrak p)$ is zero then we see that $nx \in R$ implies $1 \otimes x$ is in the image of $\kappa (\mathfrak p) \to \kappa (\mathfrak p) \otimes _ R S$. Hence $\kappa (\mathfrak p) \to \kappa (\mathfrak p) \otimes _ R S$ is an isomorphism. If the characteristic of $\kappa (\mathfrak p)$ is $p > 0$, then write $n = p^ k m$ with $m$ prime to $p$. In $\kappa (\mathfrak p) \otimes _ R S[T]$ we have

\[ (T - 1 \otimes x)^ n = ((T - 1 \otimes x)^{p^ k})^ m = (T^{p^ k} - 1 \otimes x^{p^ k})^ m \]

and we see that $mx^{p^ k} \in R$. This implies that $1 \otimes x^{p^ k}$ is in the image of $\kappa (\mathfrak p) \to \kappa (\mathfrak p) \otimes _ R S$. Hence Lemma 10.46.7 applies to $\kappa (\mathfrak p) \to \kappa (\mathfrak p) \otimes _ R S$. In both cases we conclude that $\kappa (\mathfrak p) \otimes _ R S$ has a unique prime ideal with residue field purely inseparable over $\kappa (\mathfrak p)$. By Remark 10.17.8 we conclude that $\varphi $ is bijective on spectra.

The statement on base change is immediate. $\square$


Comments (0)


Post a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked.

In your comment you can use Markdown and LaTeX style mathematics (enclose it like $\pi$). A preview option is available if you wish to see how it works out (just click on the eye in the toolbar).

Unfortunately JavaScript is disabled in your browser, so the comment preview function will not work.

All contributions are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.




In order to prevent bots from posting comments, we would like you to prove that you are human. You can do this by filling in the name of the current tag in the following input field. As a reminder, this is tag 09EF. Beware of the difference between the letter 'O' and the digit '0'.