Friday 24 June 2011

ag.algebraic geometry - A versal deformation of a simple node

I have a passing familiarity with moduli theory, which gets me in trouble when I want to understand specific examples.



The basic question I would like to understand is how to prove something is a versal deformation of the simple node. To be specific, let
$$ X_0 := Spec(mathbb{C}[x,y]/xy) $$
and let
$$ X_{ver} := Spec(mathbb{C}[x,y,t]/xy-t) $$
Note that there is a natural map $X_{ver}rightarrow mathbb{A}^1$ which sends a point to its $t$-coordinate, whose fiber over zero is $X_0$.



I want to claim that $X_{ver}$ is a versal deformation of $X_0$. What I mean by this is as follows. Consider a faithfully flat morphism $pi:X rightarrow B$, together with a distinguished point $pin B$ such that $pi^{-1}(p)$ is isomorphic to $X_0$. Then there is



  • an open neighborhood $B'subset B$ of $p$,

  • a (non-unique) map $f_0:B'rightarrow mathbb{A}^1$ which takes $p$ to $0$,

  • and a (non-unique) map $f_1:pi^{-1}(B')rightarrow X_{ver}$

such that the natural diagram
$$pi^{-1}(B') rightarrow X_{ver} $$
$$downarrow ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; downarrow $$
$$ B' ;;;;; rightarrow ;;;;; B $$
is commutative, and is a pullback diagram (ie, a fibered product). Conceptually, this says that any (sufficiently small) faithfully flat family which contains a copy of $X_0$ must be gotten from pullback from the family $X_{ver}rightarrow mathbb{A}^1$. (Note that when I refer to preimages and fibers, I mean the scheme-theoretic ones)



However, I am having trouble showing this. I have been approaching this from the algebraic perspective, by considering formal deformations of the algebra $mathbb{C}[x,y]/xy$. These aren't hard to understand, and it is straight-forward to construct maps from $mathbb{C}[x,y,t]/xy-t$ to a given formal deformation. However, I can't figure out how to make these maps surjective; ie, to keep the corresponding scheme maps from being multi-sheeted covering maps. In any event, I suspect this algebraic approach is wrong anyway, since it will, at best, only prove its a formal versal deformation.



I should also mention I am not sure if `faithfully flat' is the idea I want here. I am bad at knowing what modifiers to a flat family prevent pathological fibers, so if this is the wrong notion, please correct me.

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