Infinite intersections of open subschemes and the Hilbert scheme of points. (Q1427412)

A. Grothendieck constructed the Hilbert scheme \(\text{Hilb}^n_X\) of \(n\) points on \(X\), for any quasi-projective scheme \(X\) on a noetherian base scheme \(S\). In the paper under review, the authors are interested in showing the existence of the Hilbert scheme of \(n\) points on \(\text{Spec}({\mathcal O}_{X,P})\), where \(P\) is a (non necessarily closed) point on such a scheme \(X\). A natural candidate would be \(\bigcap_{P\in U_\alpha}\text{Hilb}^n_{U_\alpha}\), where \(U_\alpha\) varies in the set of open subsets of \(X\) containing \(P\). But in general an infinite intersection of open subschemes of a scheme is not a scheme. It is a scheme if one takes only locally principal open subschemes. The authors introduce and study the notion of generalized fraction rings and localized subschemes, of which \(\text{Spec}({\mathcal O}_{X,P})\) is a particular case. They prove that, if \(X\) is a scheme such that \(\text{Hilb}^n_X\) exists, then the functor of points of a localized scheme \({\mathcal S}^{-1}X\) is representable. As a particular case, they get the following result: If \(X\rightarrow S\) is a projective morphism of Noetherian schemes and \(P\) is a point in \(X\), then the Hilbert scheme of \(n\) points on \(\text{Spec}({\mathcal O}_{X,P})\) exists and coincides with the intersection of the Hilbert schemes of \(n\) points of the open subschemes of \(X\) containing \(P\).