We show that compatible systems of $\ell$-adic sheaves on a scheme of finite type over the ring of integers of a local field are compatible along the boundary up to stratification. This extends a theorem of Deligne on curves over a finite field. As an application, we deduce the equicharacteristic case of classical conjectures on $\ell$-independence for proper smooth varieties over complete discrete valuation fields. Moreover, we show that compatible systems have compatible ramification. We also prove an analogue for integrality along the boundary.

Soient $S$ un schéma nœthérien et $f:X\rightarrow S$ un morphisme propre. D’après SGA 4 XIV, pour tout faisceau constructible $\mathscr{F}$ de $\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$-modules sur $X$, les faisceaux de $\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$-modules $\mathtt{R}^{i}f_{\star }\mathscr{F}$, obtenus par image directe (pour la topologie étale), sont également constructibles : il existe une stratification $\mathfrak{S}$ de $S$ telle que ces faisceaux soient localement constants constructibles sur les strates. À la suite de travaux de N. Katz et G. Laumon, ou L. Illusie, dans le cas particulier où $S$ est génériquement de caractéristique nulle ou bien les faisceaux $\mathscr{F}$ sont constants (de torsion inversible sur $S$), on étudie ici la dépendance de $\mathfrak{S}$ en $\mathscr{F}$. On montre qu’une condition naturelle de constructibilité et modération « uniforme » satisfaite par les faisceaux constants, introduite par O. Gabber, est stable par les foncteurs $\mathtt{R}^{i}f_{\star }$. Si $f$ n’est pas supposé propre, ce résultat subsiste sous réserve de modération à l’infini, relativement à $S$. On démontre aussi l’existence de bornes uniformes sur les nombres de Betti, qui s’appliquent notamment pour les fibres des faisceaux $\mathtt{R}^{i}f_{\star }\mathbb{F}_{\ell }$, où $\ell$ parcourt les nombres premiers inversibles sur $S$.

In order to study $p$-adic étale cohomology of an open subvariety $U$ of a smooth proper variety $X$ over a perfect field of characteristic $p>0$, we introduce new $p$-primary torsion sheaves. It is a modification of the logarithmic de Rham–Witt sheaves of $X$ depending on effective divisors $D$ supported in $X-U$. Then we establish a perfect duality between cohomology groups of the logarithmic de Rham–Witt cohomology of $U$ and an inverse limit of those of the mentioned modified sheaves. Over a finite field, the duality can be used to study wildly ramified class field theory for the open subvariety $U$.

A technical ingredient in Faltings’ original approach to $p$-adic comparison theorems involves the construction of $K({\it\pi},1)$-neighborhoods for a smooth scheme $X$ over a mixed characteristic discrete valuation ring with a perfect residue field: every point $x\in X$ has an open neighborhood $U$ whose generic fiber is a $K({\it\pi},1)$ scheme (a notion analogous to having a contractible universal cover). We show how to extend this result to the logarithmically smooth case, which might help to simplify some proofs in $p$-adic Hodge theory. The main ingredient of the proof is a variant of a trick of Nagata used in his proof of the Noether normalization lemma.

We show how a theorem of Gabber on alterations can be used to apply the work of Cisinski, Suslin, Voevodsky, and Weibel to prove that $K_n(X) \otimes \mathbb{Z}[{1}/{p}]= 0$ for$n < {-}\! \dim X$ where $X$ is a quasi-excellent noetherian scheme, $p$ is a prime that is nilpotent on $X$, and $K_n$ is the $K$-theory of Bass–Thomason–Trobaugh. This gives a partial answer to a question of Weibel.

Let $K$ be a finitely generated extension of $\mathbb {Q}$. We consider the family of $\ell $-adic representations ($\ell $ varies through the set of all prime numbers) of the absolute Galois group of $K$, attached to $\ell $-adic cohomology of a separated scheme of finite type over $K$. We prove that the fields cut out from the algebraic closure of $K$by the kernels of the representations of the family are linearly disjoint over a finite extension of K. This gives a positive answer to a question of Serre.

We prove that the Newton polygons of Frobenius on the crystalline cohomology of proper smooth varieties satisfy a symmetry that results, in the case of projective smooth varieties, from Poincaré duality and the hard Lefschetz theorem. As a corollary, we deduce that the Betti numbers in odd degrees of any proper smooth variety over a field are even (a consequence of Hodge symmetry in characteristic zero), answering an old question of Serre. Then we give a generalization and a refinement for arbitrary varieties over finite fields, in response to later questions of Serre and of Katz.

Laumon introduced the local Fourier transform for ℓ-adic Galois representations of local fields, of equal characteristic p different from ℓ, as a powerful tool for studying the Fourier–Deligne transform of ℓ-adic sheaves over the affine line. In this article, we compute explicitly the local Fourier transform of monomial representations satisfying a certain ramification condition, and deduce Laumon’s formula relating the ε-factor to the determinant of the local Fourier transform under the same condition.

We investigate the action of the Weil group on the compactly supported $\ell$-adic étale cohomology groups of rigid spaces over a local field. We prove that the alternating sum of the traces of the action is an integer and is independent of $\ell$ when either the rigid space is smooth or the characteristic of the base field is equal to 0. We modify the argument of T. Saito to prove a result on $\ell$-independence for nearby cycle cohomology, which leads to our $\ell$-independence result for smooth rigid spaces. In the general case, we use the finiteness theorem of Huber, which requires the restriction on the characteristic of the base field.

We introduce an essentially new Grothendieck topology, the Weil-étale topology, on schemes over finite fields. The cohomology groups associated with this topology should behave better than the standard étale cohomology groups. In particular there is a very natural definition of an Euler characteristic and a plausible conjecture relating the Euler characteristic of Z to the value of the zeta-function at s = 0. This conjecture is proved in certain cases.

There is a Weil cohomology theory with coefficients in a pseudofinite field of characteristic zero.