The étale cohomology ring of the ring of integers of a number field (Q6095440)

The paper under review computes the étale cohomology ring \(H^*_{\acute{e}t}(X, \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})\) with \(X=\operatorname{Spec}\mathcal{O}_K\) for a number field \(K\). More precisely, the authors determine the ring structure the \textit{modified} étale cohomology ring \(H^*(\widetilde{X}_{\acute{e}t}, \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})\), which specialized to \(H^*_{\acute{e}t}(X, \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})\) when \(K\) is a totally imaginary number field. The ring structure of \(H^*_{\acute{e}t}(X, \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})\) is important as it often holds non-trivial arithmetic information. It starts with a detailed study of the \textit{Artin-Verdier site} \(\widetilde{X}_{\acute{e}t}\) of a number field \(K\), largely following [\textit{M. Bienenfeld}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 303, 71--96 (1987; Zbl 0629.12006)] and [\textit{B. Mazur}, Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 6, 521--552 (1973; Zbl 0282.14004)], which is a \textit{modified} étale site that takes the infinite primes into account. A sheaf on this Artin-Verdier site \(\widetilde{X}_{\acute{e}t}\) can be as a sheaf on the étale site \(X_{\acute{e}t}\) with some data at the infinite primes with some compatibility, which is an archimedean analogue of \textit{étale recollement} (Proposition2.3). From the point-of-view of cohomology, \(X\) behaves like a \(3\)-manifold in that \(H^*(\widetilde{X}_{\acute{e}t}, \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})\) satisfies the so-called \textit{Artin-Verdier duality}, an arithmetic version of Poincaré duality (Theorem 2.12). With some work, the group structure of \(H^*(\widetilde{X}_{\acute{e}t}, \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})\) is determined (Corollary 2.15). Ring structure of \(H^*(\widetilde{X}_{\acute{e}t}, \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})\) is determined in Propositions 3.11 and 3.13, and that of \(H^*_{\acute{e}t}(X, \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})\) when \(K\) is totally imaginary is stated in Propositions 1.2 and 1.1. A concrete example where the ring structure is useful is given in Example 3.14 using some computer program. As an application, a non-vanishing formula for an invariant defined by Minhyong Kim (Proposition 4.2) is reobtained.