Empty-cover criterion for the domain-classifying site

ID: empty-cover-criterion-for-the-domain-classifying-site

For a finitely presented ring , its sheafified representable is initial exactly when is the zero ring. The zero ring has a generating empty cover. Every nonzero ring maps to a field by quotienting by a maximal ideal, and that set-based domain gives a point at which the representable has a section, precluding initiality.

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