I know (at least I think I know) that some of the main motivating problems in the development of etale cohomology were the Weil conjectures. I'd like to know what other problems one can solve using the machinery of etale cohomology. I know a little bit about how etale cohomology groups appear in algebraic number theory but I'd like to know about ways that these things show up in other mathematical subjects as well. Is there anything that an algebraic topologist should really know about etale cohomology? What about a differential geometer?
[Math] Etale cohomology — Why study it
ag.algebraic-geometryat.algebraic-topologyetale-cohomologynt.number-theory
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I find Hodge theory pretty scary stuff with its compact inclusions of Sobolev spaces, pseudodifferential operators and parametrixes for elliptic differential operators. However it is very easy to use the results of Hodge theory as emanating from a black box. I remember how exhilarated I was by the argument that a Hopf surface, homeomorphic to $S^1 \times S^3$, could not be Kähler, and much less projective, just because its first Betti number is $b_1=1$. Whereas by Hodge theory a compact Kähler manifold $X$ has betti numbers $b_q(X)$ which are even whenever $q$ is odd.
Actually, the semisimplicity should hold with no hypotheses on X, so no example should exist. In fact it is generally expected that, with char. 0 coefficients and over a finite field (both hypotheses being necessary), every mixed motive is a direct sum of pure motives -- so the question for arbitrary varieties reduces to that for smooth projective ones.
The reason is as follows: the different weight-pieces have no frobenius eigenvalues in common (by the Weil conjectures), so the weight filtration can be split by a simple matter of linear algebra. (And the splitting will even be motivic since frobenius is a map of varieties.)
Edit: In response to Jim's comment, let me try to provide a clearer argument (2nd edit: no longer using the Tate conjecture). I claim that if we assume the existence of a motivic t-structure over F_q w.r.t. the l-adic realization in the sense of Beilinson's article http://arxiv.org/pdf/1006.1116v2.pdf, then provided that H^i_c(X-bar) is Frobenius-semisimple for smooth projective X, it is in fact so for aribtrary X.
Indeed, given a motivic t-structure, its heart is an artinian abelian category where every irreducible object is a summand of a Tate-twist of an H^i(X) for X smooth an projective, and furthermore there are no extensions between such irreducibles of the same weight (this is all in Beilinson's article).
That's all true over a general field. But now let's argue that, in the case of a finite field, there also can't be extensions between such irreducibles of different weights; then in the motivic category all of our H^i_c(X-bar) of interest will be direct sums of summands of H^i(X)'s, and we'll have successfully made the reduction to the smooth projective case.
So suppose M and N are irreducible motives of distinct weights over F_q, and say E is an extension of M by N. Consider the characteristic polynomials p_M and p_N of Frobenius acting on the l-adic cohomologies of M and N. By Deligne, they have rational coefficients and distinct eigenvalues, so we can solve q * p_N == 1 (mod p_M) for a rational-coefficient polynomial q. But then (q*p_N)(frobenius) acting on E splits the extension (recall from Beilinson's article that the l-adic realization is faithful under our hypothesis), and we're done.
Later commentary: apparently, when I wrote this I was a little too excited about the perspectives offered by motives. I should emphasize the point essentially made by Minhyong Kim, that the reduction from the general case to the proper smooth case likely doesn't require any motivic technology, and should even be independent of any conjectures. One just needs to know that there's a weight filtration on l-adic cohomology of the standard type where the pure pieces are direct sums of direct summands of appropriate cohomology of smooth projective varieties. As Minhyong says, this probably follows from Deligne's original pure --> mixed argument, via use of compactifications and de Jong alterations. Or at least that's what it seems to me without having gone into the details. I'm sure someone else knows better.
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$\DeclareMathOperator{\gal}{Gal}$ Here's a comment which one can make to differential geometers which at least explains what etale cohomology "does". Given an algebraic variety over the reals, say a smooth one, its complex points are a complex manifold but with a little extra structure: the complex points admit an automorphism coming from complex conjugation. Hence the singular cohomology groups inherit an induced automorphism, which is extra information that is sometimes worth carrying around. In short: the cohomology of an algebraic variety defined over the reals inherits an action of $\gal(\mathbb{C}/\mathbb{R})$.
The great thing about etale cohomology is that a number theorist can now do the same trick with algebraic varieties defined over $\mathbb{Q}$. The etale cohomology groups of this variety will have the same dimension as the singular cohomology groups (and are indeed isomorphic to them via a comparison theorem, once the coefficient ring is big enough) but the advantage is that that they inherit a structure of the amazingly rich and complicated group $\gal(\bar{\mathbb{Q}}/\mathbb{Q})$. I've often found that this comment sees off differential geometers, with the thought "well at least I sort-of know the point of it now". A differential geometer probably doesn't want to study $\gal(\bar{\mathbb{Q}}/\mathbb{Q})$ though.
If I put my Langlands-philosophy hat on though, I can see a huge motivation for etale cohomology: Langlands says that automorphic forms should give rise to representations of Galois groups, and etale cohomology is a very powerful machine for constructing representations of Galois groups, so that's why I might be interested in it even if I'm not an algebraic geometer.
Finally, I guess a much simpler motivating good reason for etale cohomology is that geometry is definitely facilitated when you have cohomology theories around. That much is clear. But if you're doing algebraic geometry over a field that isn't $\mathbb C$ or $\mathbb R$ then classical cohomology theories aren't going to cut it, and the Zariski topology is so awful that you can't use it alone to do geometry---you're going to need some help. Hence etale cohomology, which gives the right answers: e.g. a smooth projective curve over any field has a genus, and etale cohomology is a theory which assigns to it an $H^1$ of dimension $2g$ (<pedant> at least if you use $\ell$-adic cohomology for $\ell$ not zero in the field <\pedant>).