The essential cover and the absolute cover of a schematic space
A theorem of Gleason states that every compact space admits a projective cover. More generally, in the category of topological spaces with continuous maps, covers exist with respect to the full subcategory of extremally disconnected spaces. Such a cover of a space is called its absolute. We prove that the absolute exists within the category of schematic spaces, i.e. the spaces underlying a scheme. For a schematic space, we use the absolute to generalize Bourbaki's concept of irreducible component,...