Motives and etale motives with finite coefficients (Q2576457)

When the Bott element \(\beta\) was first inverted in algebraic \(K\)-theory by \textit{V. P. Snaith} [``Algebraic cobordism and \(K\)-theory'', Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 221 (1979; Zbl 0413.55004)] (Part IV \S4 p.133) [see also \textit{V. P. Snaith}, ``Algebraic \(K\)-theory and localised stable homotopy theory'', Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 280 (1983; Zbl 0529.55015)] this meant inflicting Bott periodicity on the \textit{homotopy groups} of algebraic \(K\)-theory by taking a direct limit over successive multiplication by \(\beta\). The idea was to construct mod \(l\) \(K\)-theoretic homotopy groups for schemes which mirrored the Bott periodicity in mod \(l\) étale cohomology under the Chern class map, as explained by \textit{W. Dwyer, E. M. Friedlander, V. P. Snaith} and \textit{R.W. Thomason} [``Algebraic \(K\)-theory eventually surjects onto topological \(K\)-theory'', Invent. Math. 66, 481--491 (1982; Zbl 0501.14013)]. This process culminated in Thomason's famous theorem [\textit{R. W. Thomason}, ``Algebraic K-theory and etale cohomology'', Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. 18, 437--552 (1985; Zbl 0596.14012)]. Amusingly, on page 5 of their paper the authors refer to Thomason's theorem as an ``observation''! Things have moved on a lot since Thomason's theorem to the point that inverting the Bott element is now performed on Voevodsky's triangulated categories using a motivic Bott element. \textit{M. Levine} [``Inverting the motivic Bott element'', \(K\)-theory 19, 1--28 (2000; Zbl 0948.19003)]. He shows that motivic cohomology and etale cohomology with finite coefficients coincide after inverting the motivic Bott element \(W_{\text{mot}}\). Let \(k\) be a field of characteristic zero containing a primitive \(n\)-th root of unity and having finite etale cohomological dimension mod \(n\). Let \(DM_{\text{gm}}^{\text{eff}}\) and \(DM_{\text{gm, et}}^{\text{eff}}\) denote Voevodsky's motivic categories for smooth schemes over \(k\) in the Nisnevich and etale topologies, respectively. Then, using Levine's result, the authors show that the canonical change of topologies induces an equivalence of triangulated categories of the form \[ DM_{\text{gm}}^{\text{eff}}({\mathbb Z}/n)[W_{\text{mot}}^{-1} ] \overset{\cong}{\longrightarrow} DM_{\text{gm, et}}^{\text{eff}}({\mathbb Z}/n) . \]