The geometry of blueprints: Part I: Algebraic background and scheme theory

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce the category of blueprints, which is a category of algebraic objects that include both commutative (semi)rings and commutative monoids. This generalization allows a simultaneous treatment of ideals resp. congruences for rings and monoids and leads to a common scheme theory. In particular, it bridges the gap between usual schemes and F 1 -schemes (after Kato, Deitmar and Connes–Consani). Beside this unification, the category of blueprints contains new interesting objects as “improved” cyclotomic field extensions F 1 n of F 1 and “archimedean valuation rings”. It also yields a notion of semiring schemes. This first paper lays the foundation for subsequent projects, which are devoted to the following problems: Titsʼ idea of Chevalley groups over F 1 , congruence schemes, sheaf cohomology, K-theory and a unified view on analytic geometry over F 1 , adic spaces (after Huber), analytic spaces (after Berkovich) and tropical geometry.