Formally étale means that the infinitesimal lifting property is uniquely satisfied. If the map is also locally of finite presentation, then it is called étale. One of many characterizations (see EGA 4.5.17) of étale is flat and unramified. So my question is whether the weaker condition of formally étale still implies flatness?
[Math] Does formally etale imply flat
ag.algebraic-geometry
Related Solutions
There are absolutely flat rings $A$ (i.e. every $A$-module is flat) with nonisolated (automatically closed) points $x$ in the spectrum. Then take the inclusion $x\to \mathrm{Spec}(A)$. Examples of such rings are ($k$ being any field):
• infinite products of fields, e.g. $k^\mathbb{N}$: you get a nontrivial maximal ideal from any nonprincipal ultrafilter on $\mathbb{N}$,
• the ring of locally constant $k$-valued functions on any (infinite) totally disconnected compact Hausdorff space $Y$: then it is a classical exercise that the spectrum is $Y$.
Various people have imposed finite presentation instead of finite type: most notably Grothendieck for unramified and Demazure–Gabriel for proper maps. Both these cases seem to have been motivated by the simple functorial characterization of locally of finite presentation. I would however argue that finite presentation, as opposed to finite type, is not the most natural choice for immersions and unramified, proper, finite, quasi-finite, projective and quasi-projective morphisms. Let me try to motivate this:
The difference between finite type and finite presentation arises when you take the image of a map between finitely presented modules/algebras. For this reason it would be unnatural to demand that closed immersions (surjections) are of finite presentation, for example, the schematic image of a morphism $X\to Y$ between finitely presented schemes is a closed immersion $Z\hookrightarrow Y$ which need not be finitely presented. Since it is natural to include closed immersions among finite and proper morphisms, this motivates including maps of finite type.
Other constructions involving finite and proper morphisms also result in morphisms of finite type (also for quasi-finite morphisms etc):
- If you blow-up a scheme in a finitely generated ideal, you obtain a proper morphisms of finite type but it is not of finite presentation even if the ideal is finitely presented.
- Unions of finite extensions of rings are finite (but finite presentation need not be preserved).
Another natural source for morphisms (locally) of finite type that are not (locally) of finite presentation is the diagonal of any morphism.
A perhaps more compelling reason is that all the important results hold for finite type morphisms, including:
- Projective morphisms are universally closed.
- Quasi-finite morphisms factor as an open immersion followed by a finite morphism.
- Proper + quasi-finite = finite.
When it comes to unramified morphisms, one has several nice results that hold also for finite type morphisms:
- Description of monomorphisms, locally of finite type, in terms of fibers.
- Description of unramified morphisms, in terms of fibers.
- Description of unramified morphisms, in terms of vanishing of Kähler differentials.
- Description of unramified morphisms as having an étale diagonal (for maps between schemes: an open immersion).
- Description of unramified morphisms as being étale-locally a closed immersion.
- Description of unramified morphisms as factorizing canonically as a closed immersion followed by an étale morphism.
All these results fail if we remove "finite type" though. For étale morphisms, however, it is necessary to assume finite presentation and not merely finite type to get a well-behaved notion.
A morphism of finite type $f$ (over a quasi-compact and quasi-separated scheme) factors as a closed immersion $i$ followed by a finitely presented morphism $g$. Moreover, if $f$ is finite, proper, quasi-finite, etc., we may assume that $g$ is so as well. The difference between finite type and finite presentation is thus captured by closed immersions.
Let me also mention that neither finite type nor finite presentation is as well-behaved as finite type in the noetherian case. For example, neither finitely generated, nor finitely presented modules give abelian categories. Coherent modules and pseudo-coherent complexes are other variations that have their drawbacks and benefits. For example, in Grothendieck duality, neither proper nor proper and finite presentation is good enough. There are also situations were finite presentation and arbitrary nil-immersions are adequate (what I have called "constructible finite type").
Finally, there are also some situations where weaker notions than finite type are enough. In étale cohomology, proper base change holds after weakening finite type (any universal homeomorphism induces an equivalence of étale topoi). Chevalley's upper semicontinuity of fiber dimension holds for any universally closed, separated and quasi-compact morphism.
Best Answer
It seems that Anton Geraschenkos answer to a previous question Is there an example of a formally smooth morphism that is not smooth does the trick here as well. His example of a formally smooth map that is not flat is indeed formally etale. So, formally etale does not imply flat.