On the moduli stack of commutative, 1-parameter formal groups (Q616316)

The aim of the paper is to explicate some of the basic algebraic geometry of the moduli stack of commutative 1-parameter formal Lie groups, abbreviated formal groups. Two main aspects of this stack are under consideration. The first is that it is not algebraic in the usual algebraic geometry sense but rather pro-algebraic; an inverse limit, in the 2-categorical or homotopy sense, of algebraic stacks of \(n\)-buds. The second aspect is its height stratification relative to a fixed prime, which is a canonical descending filtration of closed substacks. The results are characterizations of the strata of the filtration, and the analysis of the height stratification is extended to the stacks of buds. The paper can be seen as a re-expression of some aspects of classical algebraic theory of formal groups law in modern-day algebraic geometry, in the sense that infinitesimal deformation theory is extended to the theory of stacks. For example, the author's description of the stack of formal groups as the limit over \(n\) of the stack of \(n\)-buds is already implicit in Lazard's construction of the universal group law. The description of the stacks of formal groups and the stack of \(n\)-buds are given as certain quotient stacks; these are essentially reformulations of Lazard's characterization of the Lazard ring, and many of the statements about the height stratification are a translation of Lazard's classification of formal groups law over separably closed fields. Let \(\mathcal M\) and \(\mathcal B_n\) be the stacks of formal group laws and \(n\)-buds, respectively. The description of geometric properties and the height stratification of \(\mathcal M\) and \(\mathcal B_n\) with respect to a fixed prime \(p\) is the core of the article. The height stratification on \(\mathcal M\) consists of an infinite descending chain of closed substacks \[ \mathcal M=\mathcal M^{\geq 0}\supsetneq \mathcal M^{\geq 1}\supsetneq\cdots, \] and, for each \(n\), the height stratification on \(\mathcal B_n\) consists of a finite descending chain of closed substacks \[ \mathcal B_n=\mathcal B_n^{\geq 0}\supsetneq \mathcal B_n^{\geq 1}\supsetneq\cdots. \] As \(n\) varies, the stratifications on \(\mathcal B_n\) are compatible in a suitable sense, and their limit recovers the stratification on \(\mathcal M\). One main result is the following: {Theorem}. \(\mathcal B_n\) is smooth over \(\text{Spec}\mathbb Z\) of relative dimension \(-1\) at every point, and, when it is defined, \(\mathcal B^{\geq h}_n\) is smooth over \(\text{Spec}\mathbb F_p\) of relative dimension \(-h\) at every point. The author studies the strata \(\mathcal M^h\subset\mathcal M\) and \(\mathcal B_n^h\subset\mathcal B_n\) of height \(h\) formal groups and \(n\)-buds. Let \(H=H_h\) be a Honda formal group law of height \(h\) defined over \(\mathbb F_p\) and let \(\mathcal Aut(H):S\mapsto\text{Aut}_{\Gamma(S,\mathcal O_S)}(H)\) denote its functor of automorphisms, defined on \(\mathbb F_p\)-schemes \(S\). {Theorem}. \(\mathcal M^h\) is equivalent to the classifying stack \(B(\mathcal Aut(H))\) for the fpqc topology. Other results are that there exists an equivalence of stacks over \(\mathbb F_{p^h}\), \[ \mathcal M^h\times_{\text{Spec}\mathbb F_{p^h}}\text{Spec}\mathbb F_{p^h}\thickapprox\varprojlim B(G/N), \] where the limit is taken over all normal subgroups \(N\) of \(G\), that \(\mathcal B_n\) is universally closed over \(\text{Spec}\mathbb Z\), and, when defined, \(\mathcal B_n^{\geq h}\) is universally closed over \(\text{Spec}\mathbb F_p\), and that when \(\mathcal O\) is a valuation ring and \(K\) its field of fractions, then \(\mathcal M^h(\mathcal O)\rightarrow\mathcal M^h(K)\) is fully faithful for all \(h\geq 1\). The article contains the basic definition of its objects; both the definition of a formal 1-parameter group, and the \(n\)-buds. The \(n\)-buds are the way of constructing formal group laws infinitesimally, a moduli theory that the author translates to the theory of stacks. This gives the stated results, and equivalent ones, and gives important examples on how local deformation theory can be used to characterize the moduli spaces (stacks) of formal group laws and \(n\)-buds.