Definition 7.2.6. A finite relation on is an equivalence relation such that the set of points that are not alone in their equivalence class is finite and contained in .
7.2.3. Quotients
Let be a curve.
Consider a finite relation on . We define a curve structure on the -dimensional space .
Let be the quotient map. We have (cf §7.1.3). Let . The map is a homeomorphism and we provide with the orientation coming from . Let . We define on to make the canonical bijection -equivariant. This makes into a strict morphism of curves.
Lemma 7.2.7. Let be a morphism of curves.
Define an equivalence relation on by if . This is a finite relation on and factors as a composition of morphisms of curves where is the quotient map and is injective.
Proof. We have . It follows that is a finite relation on and the lemma follows from Lemma 7.1.13. ∎
We define the category of non-singular curves with a finite relation as the category with objects pairs where is a non-singular curve and is a finite relation on , and where is the set of morphisms of curves such that if , then .
The next proposition shows that curves can be viewed as non-singular curves with a finite relation.
Proposition 7.2.8. The quotient construction defines an equivalence from the category of non-singular curves with a finite relation to the category of curves.
Proof. Let and be two non-singular curves with finite relations and let and be the quotient maps.
A morphism of curves such that implies induces a morphism of curves . So, the quotient functor induces indeed a functor as claimed. Consider such that implies . If , then and coincide outside a finite set of points, hence . So, the quotient functor is faithful.
Consider now a morphism of curves . Let be the finite subset of of points that are not alone in their equivalence class and . Consider the composition of continuous maps
Given , the -equivariance of ensures that extends to a continuous map at . So, extends (uniquely) to a continuous map , and that map is a morphism of -dimensional spaces.
We have and . Since is orientation-preserving, it follows that is orientation-preserving. So, is a morphism of curves and it is compatible with the relations. This shows that the quotient functor is fully faithful.
Let now be a curve. Let and be a small open neighbourhood of . Fix an isomorphism of curves . The equivalence relation on whose equivalence classes are the orbits of defines via the equivalence relation on given by if and only if .
The proof of Lemma 7.1.14 provides us a non-singular curve with a finite relation. Indeed, with the notations of the proof of Lemma 7.1.14, we have . Note that is the subspace of obtained by adding to the point of for each and each .
This gives a structure of non-singular curve. As in the proof of Lemma 7.1.14, we obtain a finite relation on and an isomorphism of curves . This shows that the quotient functor is essentially surjective. ∎
Definition 7.2.9. Given a curve, the non-singular cover of is a non-singular curve , together with a finite relation and an isomorphism .
Note that where is the canonical map. Proposition 7.2.8 shows that non-singular covers exist and are unique up to a unique isomorphism. The following proposition makes this more precise.
Proposition 7.2.10. The functor sending a curve to its non-singular cover is right adjoint to the embedding of the category of non-singular curves in the category of curves.
Proof. Let be a non-singular curve. We have a map . Since is finite, it follows that is injective.
Example 7.2.11. Let us provide some examples of curves and non-singular covers. The dotted lines link the points in the same equivalence class. The grey part corresponds to .
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Original source: arXiv:2009.09627v2
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