In algebraic geometry, a morphism of schemes f from X to Y is called quasi-separated if the diagonal map from X to X × YX is quasi-compact (meaning that the inverse image of any quasi-compact open set is quasi-compact). A scheme X is called quasi-separated if the morphism to Spec Z is quasi-separated. Quasi-separated algebraic spaces and algebraic stacks and morphisms between them are defined in a similar way, though some authors include the condition that X is quasi-separated as part of the definition of an algebraic space or algebraic stack X . Quasi-separated morphisms were introduced by as a generalization of separated morphisms. All separated morphisms (and all morphisms of Noetherian schemes) are automatically quasi-separated. Quasi-separated morphisms are important for algebraic spaces and algebraic stacks, where many natural morphisms are quasi-separated but not separated. The condition that a morphism is quasi-separated often occurs together with the condition that it is quasi-compact.

Examples

X is a locally Noetherian scheme then any morphism from X to any scheme is quasi-separated, and in particular X is a quasi-separated scheme. X is an "infinite dimensional vector space with two origins" over a field K then the morphism from X to spec K is not quasi-separated. More precisely X consists of two copies of Spec K[x1,x2,....] glued together by identifying the nonzero points in each copy. K is a field of characteristic 0 then the quotient of the affine line by the group Z of integers is an algebraic space that is not quasi-separated. This algebraic space is also an example of a group object in the category of algebraic spaces that is not a scheme; quasi-separated algebraic spaces that are group objects are always group schemes. There are similar examples given by taking the quotient of the group scheme Gm by an infinite subgroup, or the quotient of the complex numbers by a lattice.