Scheme-theoretic fiber

For a morphism of schemes $f:X\to Y$ and a point $y\in Y$, the scheme-theoretic fiber is the fiber product $X{\times }_Y\mathrm{Spec}\kappa (y)$. It remembers multiplicities and nilpotents that the underlying set-theoretic inverse image cannot detect.

Its underlying fiber is enriched with local-ring and multiplicity information.

Over a perfect field $k$ of characteristic $p$, the scheme-theoretic fiber of the Absolute Frobenius morphism of ${\mathbb{A}}_k^1$ over a rational point $a$ isIts underlying space is one point, but its coordinate ring has a nonzero nilpotent element, so the fibre is a length-$p$ nonreduced scheme.