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An affine open cover of a scheme is an open cover by affine open subsets. Every scheme has such a cover by definition. A quasi-compact scheme has a finite affine open cover. Whether the intersections are affine is a further condition, supplied in particular by separatedness over an affine base.

An affine open subscheme is an open subset of a scheme with its restricted structure sheaf, which is itself an affine scheme. Every scheme has an open cover by such subschemes. On an affine scheme, the principal open subschemes give an open basis.

An affine scheme is a scheme isomorphic to $\mathrm{Spec}A$ for some commutative ring $A$. Homomorphisms $A\to B$ correspond contravariantly to morphisms $\mathrm{Spec}B\to \mathrm{Spec}A$.

A closed subscheme of $X$ is a scheme $Z$ together with a closed immersion $Z\hookrightarrow X$, usually identified with its image and its quotient structure sheaf.

For a scheme over $\mathbb{R}$, its base change of a morphism of schemes to $\mathbb{C}$ has scheme-theoretic fibre over a point $p$ equal to $\mathrm{Spec}(\kappa (p){\otimes }_{\mathbb{R}}\mathbb{C})$. This is the spectrum of $\kappa (p)[s]/(s^2+1)$. It has two points if $-1$ is a square in the residue field, and otherwise one point with a quadratic field extension. In both cases it is reduced, because the quadratic polynomial has no repeated root in characteristic zero. The distinction applies to generic points as well as closed points.

If a nonempty scheme $X$ has no nontrivial idempotent in $\Gamma (X,{\mathcal{O}}_X)$, then its underlying topological space is connected. Indeed, a decomposition into two nonempty clopen subsets would produce the global regular function equal to zero on one component and one on the other. In particular, $\Gamma (X,{\mathcal{O}}_X)$ being a field implies connectedness.

The dimension of a scheme is the supremum of the lengths of strict chains of irreducible closed subsets of its underlying topological space. On an affine scheme it is the Krull dimension of its coordinate ring. Taking the reduced subscheme leaves the dimension unchanged.

A morphism of schemes is étale when it is flat, unramified and locally of finite presentation. For a morphism between smooth varieties of the same dimension, an invertible differential gives this property locally. A finite étale morphism over an algebraically closed field has reduced finite fibres, and their cardinalities equal its degree when the source and target are connected.

A nonempty flat closed immersion of finite presentation into a connected scheme is an isomorphism. On a chart it is $A\to A/I$ with $I$ finitely generated. At a prime containing $I$, the quotient is a finite flat module over the local ring, hence free of rank one, so $I$ vanishes there. Finite generation extends this vanishing to a neighbourhood. Thus the image is open as well as closed; connectedness makes it all of the target, and the ideal is everywhere zero. Without finite presentation the conclusion can fail.

A formal scheme is a locally ringed space with a sheaf of topological rings that is locally a formal spectrum of a complete adic ring. An ordinary scheme is the special case of the discrete topology. A formal completion of a scheme retains all infinitesimal neighbourhoods of a closed subscheme, rather than just that subscheme.

// Target: ringed-space.bigb

A free sheaf of finite rank on a scheme is a sheaf of modules globally isomorphic to ${\mathcal{O}}_X^{\oplus r}$. A locally free sheaf only requires such an isomorphism on an open cover; its local frames need not glue to one global frame.

The functor of points describes a scheme through its morphisms from test schemes. On commutative rings, it is covariant because a ring homomorphism reverses the corresponding affine-scheme map. A functor on rings is represented by $X$ in the algebraic-geometric sense when it is naturally isomorphic to $h_X$. The representing scheme need not be affine; this is different from demanding a representable functor in the category of rings itself.

// Target: module-theory.bigb

A global regular function is a global section of the structure sheaf of a scheme, defined on the entire scheme. These functions form its ring $H^0(X,{\mathcal{O}}_X)$. On an affine scheme this recovers the defining ring; on a positive-dimensional projective complete intersection it consists only of constants over the base field.

Given schemes $X_i$ and isomorphisms between designated open subschemes satisfying inverse and cocycle conditions, identify the underlying open spaces and glue their structure sheaves. The resulting locally ringed space is locally one of the $X_i$, hence a scheme. The same construction works for formal schemes and topological structure sheaves. Compatible morphisms out of the charts glue uniquely.

// Target: ringed-space.bigb

For a finite free module $M$ of rank $n$, this scheme represents rank-$r$ locally free module quotients of $M$ after base change, with quotient maps identified up to commuting isomorphism. It carries a universal exact sequence $0\to \mathcal{S}\to M\otimes \mathcal{O}\to \mathcal{Q}\to 0$, of ranks $n-r,n,r$. Its standard affine charts of the quotient Grassmannian prove representability over any base ring. Over a field, taking kernels gives the usual Grassmannian of $(n-r)$-planes.

// Target: ringed-space.bigb

A global idempotent on a scheme is zero or one in every local ring. Its one-locus is both open and closed. Conversely a clopen subset determines a global idempotent by gluing one on it and zero on its complement. Under this correspondence, decompositions into nonzero orthogonal idempotents correspond to disjoint clopen decompositions. When all connected components are open, the primitive idempotents correspond exactly to those components. Without orthogonality the assertion fails in characteristic two: $(1,0)=(1,1)+(0,1)$ in ${\mathbb{F}}_2\times {\mathbb{F}}_2$.