Total separable closure and contractions

Abstract

We show that on integral normal separated schemes whose function field is separably closed, for each pair of points the intersection of the resulting local schemes is local. This extends a result of Artin from rings to schemes. The argument relies on the existence of certain modifications in inverse limits. As an application, we show that \v{C}ech cohomology coincides with sheaf cohomology for the Nisnevich topology. Along the way, we generalize the characterization of contractible curves on surfaces by negative-definiteness of the intersection matrix to higher dimensions, using bigness of invertible sheaves on non-reduced schemes.