De Rham cohomology and conductors of curves (Q1095208)

This paper shows that the conductor of an arithmetic surface (a two- dimensional scheme flat and proper over \({\mathbb{Z}})\) is the Euler characteristic of the torsion of the de Rham complex. The conductor appears in the (conjectured) functional equation for the Hasse-Weil zeta- function of the scheme and has an expression as the product of local terms which in turn can be expressed in terms of local contributions to the étale cohomology of the surface. The desired formula therefore gives a relation between local contributions to the de Rham cohomology and the étale cohomology of the scheme. It is proved by the intermediary of the Riemann-Roch formula and an expression of a local Chern class in terms of the local contribution to the Euler-Poincaré formula. In the course of the argument an expression of the conductor as the square root of the discriminant of the cup product of the de Rham complex truncated at degree 1 is obtained.