Noetherian approximation of algebraic spaces and stacks

Abstract

We show that every scheme/algebraic space/stack that is quasi-compact with quasi-finite diagonal can be approximated by a noetherian scheme/algebraic space/stack. More generally, we show that any stack which is etale-locally a global quotient stack can be approximated. Examples of applications are generalizations of Chevalley's, Serre's and Zariski's theorems and Chow's lemma to the non-noetherian setting. We also show that every quasi-compact algebraic stack with quasi-finite diagonal has a finite generically flat cover by a scheme.