Quotient spaces modulo algebraic groups (Q676103)

The main result of the article is an existence theorem on geometric quotients for proper actions of algebraic group schemes on algebraic spaces. Let \(G\) be an affine algebraic group scheme of finite type over some excellent base scheme \(S\). Suppose that \(G\) acts morphically on the algebraic space \(X\) of finite type over \(S\). The notion of a geometric quotient for the action of \(G\) on \(X\) is defined by the author basically in analogy to D. Mumford's concept for the case of schemes. Whereas in the category of schemes a geometric quotient is necessarily categorical and hence unique, these two properties are no longer satisfied in the category of algebraic spaces, as the author shows in an explicit example. Now assume that the action of \(G\) on \(X\) is proper. The main result of the article ensures that there exists a geometric quotient \(q : X \to Y\) for the action of \(G\) on \(X\) if one of the following conditions is valid: (a) \(G\) is reductive over \(S\), (b) \(S\) is the spectrum of a field of positive characteristic. Moreover, then the algebraic space \(Y\) over \(S\) is separated and \(q\) is in fact categorical. The author obtains also important properties of quotient morphisms. In fact, he works under slightly weaker assumptions and considers the notion of an approximate quotient for the action of \(G\) on \(X\). For \(G\) universally open over \(S\) it is shown that such a quotient \(p: X \to Y\) is an affine morphism. If furthermore \(G\) is flat over \(S\), then for every coherent \(G\)-sheaf \(F\) on \(X\) the sheaf \((p_*F)^G\) of invariants on \(Y\) is coherent. The main result yields the existence of certain moduli spaces that was known before only in characteristic zero. In the meantime \textit{S. Keel} and \textit{S. Mori} [Ann. Math., II. Ser. 145, No. 1, 193-213 (1997; see the following review)] presented a proof for the existence of geometric quotients by proper actions of flat algebraic group schemes with finite stabilizer on algebraic spaces in a more general framework.