Almost ring theory

From MaRDI portal



Abstract: The categories of almost modules and almost algebras are introduced as a convenient setting for the development of Faltings' method of almost etale extensions. After some preliminaries of general "almost homological algebra" we construct the almost version of the cotangent complex and we use it to generalise some results of Faltings on the lifting of almost etale morphisms and almost etale algebras over nilpotent extensions. We also study the "almost trace" of an almost flat and almost finitely presented morphism, in particular we show that the almost trace is (almost) perfect if and only if the morphism is almost etale. Finally we study some cases of non-flat descent for almost rings, and establish the invariance of almost etale morphisms under Frobenius.


Almost ring theory was developed by the reviewer for applications in higher-dimensional ramification theory, and only to the extent necessary for that purpose. The term ``almost refers to a non-discrete \(p\)-adic valuation and indicates that one ignores modules annihilated by any element of positive valuation. That is one works in a quotient of the category of modules. The one-dimensional case is due to J. Tate who observed that one highly ramified extension kills all other ramification. In the present book the theory is presented in a much more systematic manner. Instead of non-discrete valuations one considers ideals equal to their square, with a thorough discussion about which additional assumptions should be made. After that much of classical commutative algebra gets revisited and reworked in a new perspective, as finiteness conditions, flat and projective modules, unramified, smooth and étale maps, henselian pairs, valuation rings. One difference to the classical treatments is the systematic use of the cotangent complex. Finally, the last chapter investigates this complex for adic spaces, presumably as a preparation for an extension of the theory into a rigid context.




Cited in
(only showing first 100 items - show all)








This page was built for publication: Almost ring theory

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q1406603)