group cohomology, nonabelian group cohomology, Lie group cohomology
cohomology with constant coefficients / with a local system of coefficients
differential cohomology
This page goes through some basics of étale cohomology.
To every scheme is assigned a site which is a geometric analog of the collection of étale spaces over a topological space. This is called the étale site of the scheme. The category of sheaves on that site is called the étale topos of the scheme. The intrinsic cohomology of that topos, hence the abelian sheaf cohomology over the étale site, is the étale cohomology of .
This section starts with looking at some basic aspects of the étale topos as such, the basic definitions and the central descent theorem for characterizing its sheaves. The next section then genuinely considers the corresponding abelian sheaf cohomology.
Étale cohomology is traditionally motivated by the route by which it was historically discovered, namely as a fix for technical problems encountered with the Zariski topology. You can find this historical motivation in all textbooks and lectures, see the References below.
But étale cohomology has a more fundamental raison d’être than this. As discussed at étale topos it is induced in any context in which one has a “reduction modality”. While fundamental, this is actually a simple point of view which leads to a simple characterization of étale morphisms, and this is what we start with now.
Of the many equivalent characterizations of étale morphisms, here we will have use of the following incarnation:
A morphisms of schemes is an étale morphism of schemes if it is
formally étale– recalled in a moment;
The first condition makes an étale morphism of schemes be like an étale space over its codomain. The second essentially just says demands this has finite fibers.
For a scheme, its étale site has a objects the étale morphisms of schemes into , as morphisms the morphisms of schemes over , and as coverings the jointly surjective étale morphisms over .
The category of sheaves on is the étale topos of . The corresponding abelian sheaf cohomology is its étale cohomology.
The definition of formally étale in components goes like this.
A morphism of commutative rings is called formally étale if for every ring and for every nilpotent ideal and for every commuting diagram of the form
there is a unique diagonal morphism
that makes both triangles commute.
(e.g. Stacks Project 57.9, 57.12)
So dually this means that is formally étale if it has the unique right lifting property against all infinitesimal extensions
and locality this yields a notion of formally étale morphisms of affine varieties and of schemes.
It is useful to realize this equivalently but a bit more naturally as follows.
Write for the category of finitely generated commutative rings and write for the category of infinitesimal ring extensions. Write
for the functor which sends an infinitesimal ring extension to the underlying commutative ring (in the maximal case this sends a commutative ring to its reduced ring, whence the name of the functor), and write
for the full subcategory inclusion that regards a ring as the trivial infinitesimal extension over itself.
There is an adjoint triple of idempotent (co-)monads
where the left adjoint comonad is given on representables by the reduction functor of def. (followed by the inclusion).
This statement and the following prop. is a slight paraphrase of an observation due to (Kontsevich-Rosenberg 04). A closely related adjunction appeared in (Simpson-Teleman 13) in the discussion of de Rham spaces. The general abstract situation of “differential cohesion” has been discussed in (Schreiber 13).
The functors from def. form an adjoint pair because an extension element can only map to an extension element; so for an infinitesimal ring extension of , and for a commutative ring with its trivial extension, there is a natural isomorphism
This exhibits as a reflective subcategory of .
Via Kan extension this adjoint pair induces an adjoint quadruple of functors on categories of presheaves
The adjoint triple to be shown is obtained from composing these adjoints pairwise.
That coincides with the reduction functor on representables is a standard property of left Kan extension (see here for details).
These considerations make sense in the general abstract context of “differential cohesion” where the adjoint triple of prop. would be called:
(reduction modality infinitesimal shape modality infinitesimal flat modality).
Due to the full subcategory inclusion in the proof of prop. we may equivalently regard presheaves on (e.g. schemes) as presheaves on (e.g. formal schemes). This is what we do implicitly in the following.
A morphism in is formally étale, def. , precisely if it is -modal relative , hence if the naturality square of the infinitesimal shape modality-unit
is a pullback square.
Evaluated on any object, by the Yoneda lemma and the -adjunction the naturality square becomes
in Set. Chasing elements through this shows that this is a pullback precisely if the condition in def. holds.
The basic stability property of étale morphisms, which we need in the following, immediately follows from this characterization:
For two composable morphisms, then
if and are both (formally) étale, then so is their composite ;
if and are (formally) étale, then so is ;
the pullback of a (formally) étale morphism along any morphism is again (formally) étale.
With prop. this is equivalently the statement of the pasting law for pullback diagrams.
Apart from that, for the proofs in the following we need the following basic facts
Every etale morphism is a flat morphism.
Flat morphism between affines is faithfully flat precisely if it is surjective
We repeatedly use the following example of étale morphisms.
Every open immersion of schemes is an étale morphism of schemes. In particular a standard open inclusion (a cover in the Zariski topology) induced by the localization of a commutative ring
is étale.
(e.g. Stacks Project, lemma 28.37.9)
By def. we need to check that the map is a formally étale morphism and locally of finite presentation.
The latter is clear, since the very definition of localization of a commutative ring
exhibits a finitely presented algebra over .
To see that it is formally étale we need to check that for every commutative ring with nilpotent ideal we have a pullback diagram
Now by the universal property of the localization, a homomorphism is a homomorphism which sends all elements in to invertible elements in . But no element in a nilpotent ideal can be invertible, Therefore the fiber product of the bottom and right map is the set of maps from to such that is taken to invertibles, which is indeed the top left set.
Since there are “many more” étale morphisms of schemes than there are open immersions of schemes, a priori the discussion of descent over the étale site is more intricate than that in, say, the Zariski topology. However, the following proposition drastically reduces the types of étale covers over which descent has to be checked in addition to the open immersions. Then the following descent theorem effectively solves the descent problem over these remaining covers.
For a scheme, and a presheaf on its étale site, def. , for checking the sheaf condition it is sufficient to check descent on the following two kinds of covers in the étale site
jointly surjective collections of open immersions of schemes;
single faithfully flat morphisms between affine schemes
(all over ).
(Tamme, II Lemma (3.1.1), Milne, prop. 6.6)
Suppose given an arbitrary étale covering over . We show how to refine it to a more special cover which itslf is the composition of covers of the form as in the statement.
To that end, first choose a cover of by affine open immersions of schemes. Then pulling back the original cover along that one yields covers
of each of the open affines. By pullback stability, prop. , these are still étale maps. Now these patches in turn we cover by open affines
leading to covers
by affines.
(Notice here crucially that while the are affine open immersions in , after this composition with an étale morphism they no longer need to be open immersions in , all we know is that the map is étale. This is the source of the second condition in the proposition to be shown, as discussed now. )
Since each , being affine, is a quasi-compact scheme, we may find a finite subcover
Composed with the original this yields a refinement of the original cover by open affines.
Hence for checking descent it is sufficient to check it for these two kinds of overs. The latter is by open immersions. For the former, we may factor
as a collection of open immersions
followed by the epimorphism of affines of the form
Now this is morphism is etale, hence flat, but also surjective. That makes it a faithfully flat morphism.
Therefore we are led to consider descent along faithfully flat morphisms of affines. For these the descent theorem says that they are effective epimorphisms:
Given a commutative ring and an -associative algebra , hence a ring homomorphism , the Amitsur complex is the Moore complex of the dual Cech nerve of , hence the chain complex
(See also at Sweedler coring and at commutative Hopf algebroid for the same or similar constructions.)
This is due to (Grothendieck, FGA1). The following reproduces the proof in low degree following (Milne, prop. 6.8).
We show that
is an exact sequence if is faithfully flat.
First observe that the statement follows if admits a section . Because then we can define a map
This is such that applied to a coboundary it yields
and hence it exhibits every cocycle as a coboundary .
So the statement is true for the special morphism
because that has a section given by the multiplication map.
But now observe that the morphism is the tensor product of the morphism with over , hence the Amitsur complex of this morphism is exact.
Finally, the fact that is faithfully flat by assumption, hence that it exhibits as a faithfully flat module over , means by definition that the Amitsur complex for is exact precisely if that for is exact.
This is due to (Grothendieck, SGA1 exp. XIII 5.3) A review is in (Tamme, II theorem (3.1.2), Milne, 6.2).
By prop. we are reduced to showing that the represented presheaf satisfies descent along collections of open immersions and along surjective maps of affines. For the first this is clear (it is Zariski topology-descent).
For the second case of a faithfully flat cover of affines it follows with the exactness of the corresponding Amitsur complex, by the descent theorem, prop. .
This map from -schemes to sheaves on is not injective, different -schemes may represent the same sheaf on . Unique representatives are given by étale schemess over .
(e.g. Tamme, II theorem 3.1)
We consider some examples of sheaves of abelian groups induced by prop. from group schemes over .
The additive group over is the group scheme
By the universal property of the pullback, the corresponding sheaf is given by the assignment
In other words, the sheaf represented by the additive group is the abelian sheaf underlying the structure sheaf of , and in particular the structure sheaf is indeed an étale sheaf.
Similarly one finds:
(e.g. Tamme, II, 3)
For a homomorphism of schemes, there is induced a functor on the categories underlying the étale site
given by sending an object to the fiber product/pullback along
The morphism in def. is a morphism of sites and hence induces a geometric morphism between the étale toposes
Here the direct image is given on a sheaf by
while the inverse image is given on a sheaf by
By the discussion at morphisms of sites – Relation to geometric morphisms. See also for instance (Tamme I 1.4).
The th derived functor of the direct image functor of def. sends to the sheafification of the presheaf
where on the right we have the degree abelian sheaf cohomology group with coefficients in the given (étale cohomology).
(e.g. Tamme, I (3.7.1), II (1.3.4), Milne, 12.1).
We have a commuting diagram
where the right vertical morphism is sheafification. Because and are both exact functors it follows that for an injective resolution that
For two composable morphisms of sites, the Grothendieck spectral sequence for the corresponding direct images is of the form
For the special case that and includes an étale morphism this yields the Leray spectral sequence
With some basic facts about sheaves on the étale site in hand, we now consider basics of abelian sheaf cohomology with coefficients in some such sheaves.
This may serve to give a first idea of the nature of étale cohomology. An outlook on the deep structurual theorems about étale cohomology is in the next section below.
For a scheme and a (flat) quasicoherent module over its structure sheaf , then this induces an abelian sheaf on the étale site by
(e.g. Tamme, II 3.2.1)
By prop. it is sufficient to test the sheaf condition on open affine covers and on singleton covers by faithfully flat morphisms of affines. For the first case we have a sheaf since this is just the sheaf condition in the Zariski topology. For the second case the corresponding Cech complexes are the Amitsur complexes of a faithfully flat tensored with . By the descent theorem, prop. this is exact, hence verifies the sheaf condition.
We consider now the étale abelian sheaf cohomology with coefficients in such coherent modules.
A cover in the Zariski topology on schemes is an open immersion of schemes and hence is in particular an étale morphism of schemes. Hence the étale site is finer than the Zariski site and so every étale sheaf is a Zarsiki sheaf, but not necessarily conversely.
For a scheme, the inclusion
of the Zariski site into the étale site is indeed a morphism of sites. Hence there is a Leray spectral sequence, remark , which computes étale cohomology in terms of Zarsiki cohomology
This is originally due to (Grothendieck, SGA 4 (Chapter VII, p355)). Reviews include (Tamme, II 1.3).
For a quasi-coherent sheaf of -modules and the induced étale sheaf (by the discussion at étale topos – Quasicohetent sheaves), then the edge morphism
of the Leray spectral sequence of remark is an isomorphism for all , identifying the abelian sheaf cohomology on the Zariski site with coefficients in with the étale cohomology with coefficients in .
Moreover, for affine we have
This is due to (Grothendieck, FGA 1). See also for instance (Tamme, II (4.1.2)).
By the discussion at edge morphism it suffices to show that
By prop , is the sheaf on the Zariski topology which is the sheafification of the presheaf given by
hence it is sufficient that this vanishes, or rather, by locality (sheafification) it suffices to show this vanishes for an affine algebraic variety.
By the existence of cofinal affine étale covers the full subcategory on the étale maps with affien domains, equipped with the induced coverage, is a dense subsite. Therefore it suffices to show the statement there. Moreover, by the finiteness condition on étale morphisms every cover of may be refined by a finite cover, hence by an affine covering map
It follows (by a discussion such as e.g. at Sweedler coring) that the corresponding Cech cohomology complex
is of the form
known as the Amitsur complex of , tensored with .
Since is a faithfully flat morphism, it follows again by the descent theorem, prop. that this is exact, hence that the cohomology indeed vanishes.
Let be a reduced scheme of characteristic the prime number , hence such that for all points
Write
for the endomorphism of the additive group over the étale site of (the structure sheaf regarded as just a sheaf of abelian groups) which is the Frobenius endomorphism minus the identity.
There is a short exact sequence of abelian sheaves over the étale site
This is called the Artin-Schreier sequence (e.g. Tamme, section II 4.2, Milne, example 7.9).
By the discussion at category of sheaves – Epi-/Mono-morphisms we need to show that the left morphism is an injection over any étale morphism , and that for every element there exists an étale site covering such that restricts on this to a morphism which hits the restriction of that element.
The first statement is clear, since says that is a constant section, hence in the image of the constant sheaf and hence for each connected the left morphism is the inclusion
induced by including the unit section and its multiples for . (This uses the “freshman's dream”-fact that in characteristic we have ).
This is injective by assumption that is of characteristic .
To show that is an epimorphism of sheaves, it is sufficient to find for each element an étale cover such that its restriction along this cover is in the image of . The choice
by construction has the desired property concerning , the preimage of is the equivalence class of .
To see that with this choice is indeed an étale morphism of schemes it is sufficient to observe that it is a morphism of finite presentation and a formally étale morphism. The first is true by construction. For the second observe that for a ring homomorphism the generator cannot go to a nilpotent element since otherwise would have to be nilpotent. This implies formal étaleness analogous to the discussion at étale morphism of schemes – Open immersion is Etale.
If is an affine reduced scheme of characteristic a prime number , then its étale cohomology with coefficients in is
Under the given assumptions, the Artin-Schreier sequence (see there) induces a long exact sequence in cohomology of the form
where is the Frobenius endomorphism. By prop. the terms of the form vanish, and so from exactness we find an isomorphism
hence the claimed isomorphism
By the same argument all the higher cohomology groups vanish, as claimed.
the étale cohomology groups with coefficients in the multiplicative group in the first few degrees go by special names:
What makes étale cohomology interesting in a broader context is that is verifies a collection of good structural theorems, which we just list now. In their totality these properties make étale cohomology (in its incarnation as ℓ-adic cohomology) qualify as a Weil cohomology theory. This in turn means that using étale cohomology one can give a proof of the Weil conjectures – a number of conjectures about properties of the numbers of points in algebraic varieties, hence of the numbers of solutions to certain polynomial equations over certain rings – , and this was historically a central motivation for introducing étale cohomology in the first place.
These theorems are
cycle map theorem (Milne, section 23)
Together these imply the central ingredient for a proof of the Weil conjectures, a Lefschetz fixed-point formula
For more on this see… elsewhere.
Last revised on December 4, 2013 at 08:03:56. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.