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    Two morphisms agreeing on a dense open agree

    PR-QX0VL

    Separatedness closes the agreement locus, and reducedness turns dense agreement into equality of morphisms.Suggest a slogan

    Let \(f : X \to Y\) be separated, let \(Z\) be a reduced scheme over \(Y\), and let \(g, h : Z \to X\) be \(Y\)-morphisms agreeing on a dense open \(U \subseteq Z\). Then \(g = h\).

    This is the good property to name, and the proof shows why both hypotheses are there. The pair \((g,h)\) gives \(Z \to \fiberprod{X}{Y}{X}\), and the locus where \(g\) and \(h\) agree is the preimage of the diagonal. Separatedness makes that preimage closed; it contains the dense \(U\), so it is all of \(Z\) topologically. Reducedness upgrades the topological statement to an equality of morphisms, because a closed subscheme of a reduced scheme with the whole space as support is the whole scheme.

    So the analogue for quasi-separated is weaker in exactly the way the diagonal is: quasicompactness of the diagonal gives a retrocompact agreement locus, not a closed one, and the conclusion fails. Quasi-separatedness is what one assumes to make cohomology and direct images behave, not to make morphisms equal.

    Name a good property of separated morphisms.
    If two morphisms agree on a dense open subset, do they agree?

    Dependencies

    • D-T2J3QSeparated and quasi-separated morphismsuses

    Backlinks

    • FE-H8DY5The line with doubled origin, and dropping each hypothesisuses

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