Coherent functors, with application to torsion in the Picard group

Let be a commutative noetherian ring. We investigate a class of functors from commutative -algebras to sets, which we call coherent. When such a functor in fact takes its values in abelian groups, we show that there are only finitely many prime numbers such that is infinite, and that none of these primes are invertible in . This (and related statements) yield information about torsion in . For example, if is of finite type over , we prove that the torsion in is supported at a finite set of primes, and if is infinite, then the prime is not invertible in . These results use the (already known) fact that if such an is normal, then is finitely generated. We obtain a parallel result for a reduced scheme of finite type over . We classify the groups which can occur as the Picard group of a scheme of finite type over a finite field.