On perverse homotopy $t$-structures, coniveau spectral sequences, cycle modules, and relative Gersten weight structures

Abstract

We study the category $DM(S)$ of Beilinson motives (as described by Cisinski and Deglise) over a more or less general base scheme $S$, and establish several nice properties for a version $t_{hom}(S)$ of the perverse homotopy $t$-structure (essentially defined by Ayoub) for it. $t_{hom}(S)$ is characterized in terms of certain stalks of an $S$-motif $H$ and its Tate twists at fields over $S$; it is closely related to certain coniveau spectral sequences for the cohomology of (the Borel-Moore motives of) arbitrary finite type $S$-schemes. We conjecture that the heart of $t_{hom}(S)$ is given by cycle modules over $S$ (as defined by Rost); for varieties over characteristic $0$ fields this conjecture was recently proved by Deglise. Our definition of $t_{hom}(S)$ is closely related to a new effectivity filtration for $DM(S)$ (and for the subcategory of Chow $S$-motives in it). We also sketch the construction of a certain Gersten weight structure for the category of $S$-comotives; this weight structure yields one more description of $t_{hom}(S)$ and its heart.