Weil-etale cohomology over finite fields

Abstract

We calculate the total derived functor for the map from the Weil-etale site introduced by Lichtenbaum to the etale site for varieties over finite fields. In particular, there is a long exact sequence relating Weil-etale cohomology and etale cohomology. In the second half of the paper, we apply this to study the Weil-etale cohomology of the motivic complex for smooth and projective varieties. These groups are expected to be finitely generated, to give an integral model for l-adic cohomology, and to be related to special values of the zeta function. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for this to hold, and examples.