A Variational Tate Conjecture in crystalline cohomology

Abstract

Given a smooth, proper family of varieties in characteristic $p>0$, and a cycle $z$ on a fibre of the family, we formulate a Variational Tate Conjecture characterising, in terms of the crystalline cycle class of $z$, whether $z$ extends cohomologically to the entire family. This is a characteristic $p$ analogue of Grothendieck's Variational Hodge Conjecture. We prove the conjecture for divisors, and an infinitesimal variant of the conjecture for cycles of higher codimension. This can be used to reduce the $\ell$-adic Tate conjecture for divisors over finite fields to the case of surfaces.