Counter-examples to non-noetherian Elkik's approximation theorem

Abstract

Elkik established a remarkable theorem that can be applied for any noetherian henselian ring. For algebraic equations with a formal solution (restricted by some smoothness assumption), this theorem provides a solution adically close to the formal one in the base ring. In this paper, we show that the theorem would fail for some non-noetherian henselian rings. These rings do not satisfy several conditions weaker than noetherianness, such as weak proregularity (due to Grothendieck et al.) of the defining ideal. We describe the resulting pathologies.