In mathematics, Artin's criteria [1] [2] [3] [4] are a collection of related necessary and sufficient conditions on deformation functors which prove the representability of these functors as either algebraic spaces [5] or as algebraic stacks. In particular, these conditions are used in the construction of the moduli stack of elliptic curves [6] and the construction of the moduli stack of pointed curves. [7]
Throughout this article, let be a scheme of finite-type over a field or an excellent DVR. will be a category fibered in groupoids, will be the groupoid lying over .
A stack is called limit preserving if it is compatible with filtered direct limits in , meaning given a filtered system there is an equivalence of categories
An element of is called an algebraic element if it is the henselization of an -algebra of finite type.
A limit preserving stack over is called an algebraic stack if