Non-finite type \'etale sites over fields

Abstract

We consider the notion of finite type-ness of a site introduced by Morel and Voevodsky, for the \'etale site of a field. For a given field $k$, we conjecture that the \'etale site of $Sm/k$ is of finite type if and only if the field $k$ admits a finite extension of finite cohomological dimension. We prove this conjecture in some cases, e.g. in the case when $k$ is countable, or in the case when the $p$-cohomological dimension $cd_p(k)$ is infinite for infinitely many primes $p$.