Morita theory for Hopf algebroids and presheaves of groupoids

Abstract

Comodules over Hopf algebroids are of central importance in algebraic topology. It is well-known that a Hopf algebroid is the same thing as a presheaf of groupoids on Aff, the opposite category of commutative rings. We show in this paper that a comodule is the same thing as a quasi-coherent sheaf over this presheaf of groupoids. We prove the general theorem that internal equivalences of presheaves of groupoids with respect to a Grothendieck topology on Aff give rise to equivalences of categories of sheaves in that topology. We then show using faithfully flat descent that an internal equivalence in the flat topology gives rise to an equivalence of categories of quasi-coherent sheaves. The corresponding statement for Hopf algebroids is that weakly equivalent Hopf algebroids have equivalent categories of comodules. We apply this to formal group laws, where we get considerable generalizations of the Miller-Ravenel and Hovey-Sadofsky change of rings theorems in algebraic topology.