The Stacks project

Lemma 37.12.3. Let $f : X \to S$ be a finite type morphism of locally Noetherian schemes. Let $Z \subset S$ be a closed subscheme with $n$th infinitesimal neighbourhood $Z_ n \subset S$. Set $X_ n = Z_ n \times _ S X$.

  1. If $X_ n \to Z_ n$ is smooth for all $n$, then $f$ is smooth at every point of $f^{-1}(Z)$.

  2. If $X_ n \to Z_ n$ is étale for all $n$, then $f$ is étale at every point of $f^{-1}(Z)$.

Proof. Assume $X_ n \to Z_ n$ is smooth for all $n$. Let $x \in X$ be a point lying over a point of $Z$. Given a small extension $B' \to B$ and morphisms $\alpha $, $\beta $ as in Lemma 37.12.1 part (3) the maximal ideal of $B'$ is nilpotent (as $B'$ is Artinian) and hence the morphism $\beta $ factors through $Z_ n$ and $\alpha $ factors through $X_ n$ for a suitable $n$. Thus the lifting property for $X_ n \to Z_ n$ kicks in to get the desired dotted arrow in the diagram. This proves (1). Part (2) follows from (1) and the fact that a morphism is étale if and only if it is smooth of relative dimension $0$. $\square$


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