Variants on Frobenius Intersection Flatness and Applications to Tate Algebras

Abstract: The theory of singularities defined by Frobenius has been extensively developed for $F$-finite rings and for rings that are essentially of finite type over excellent local rings. However, important classes of non-local excellent rings, such as Tate algebras and their quotients (affinoid algebras) do not fit into either setting. We investigate here a framework for moving beyond the $F$-finite setting, developing the theory of three related classes of regular rings defined by properties of Frobenius. In increasing order of strength, these are Frobenius Ohm-Rush (FOR), Frobenius intersection flat, and Frobenius Ohm-Rush trace (FORT). We show that Tate algebras are Frobenius intersection flat, from which it follows that reduced affinoid algebras have test elements using a result of Sharp. We also deduce new cases of the openness of the $F$-pure locus.