The complexity of a flat groupoid (Q1796615)

Summary: \textit{A. Grothendieck} (ed.) [Séminaire de géométrie algébrique du Bois Marie 1960-61. Revêtements étales et groupe fondamental (SGA 1). Un séminaire dirigé par Alexander Grothendieck. Augmenté de deux exposés de M. Raynaud. Paris: Société Mathématique de France (2003; Zbl 1039.14001)] proved that any finite epimorphism of noetherian schemes factors into a finite sequence of effective epimorphisms. We define the complexity of a flat groupoid \(R\rightrightarrows X\) with finite stabilizer to be the length of the canonical sequence of the finite map \(R\rightarrow X\times_{X/R} X\), where \(X/R\) is the Keel-Mori geometric quotient. For groupoids of complexity at most 1, we prove a theorem of descent along the quotient \(X\rightarrow X/R\) and a theorem on the existence of the quotient of a groupoid by a normal subgroupoid. We expect that the complexity could play an important role in the finer study of quotients by groupoids.