Affine analog of the proper base change theorem (Q1335165)

Let \(I\) denote an ideal in a commutative Noetherian ring \(A\). Suppose that \((A,I)\) is a Henselian pair, i.e., \(I\) is contained in the Jacobson radical of \(A\) and for any two relatively prime monic polynomials \(g,h \in (A/I) [t],t\) a variable, and a monic lifting \(F \in A[t]\) of \(gh\) there exist monic liftings \(G,H \in A[t]\) such that \(F = GH\). Put \(X = \text{Spec} A\) and \(X_ 0 = \text{Spec} A/I\). Let \({i_{et} : X_{0et} \to X_{et}}\) denote the morphism of étale sites. Then for any abelian sheaf \({\mathcal F}\) on \(X_{et}\) and all \(q \geq 0\) there is the restriction map \[ \rho_ q^{\mathcal F} : H^ q(X_{et}, {\mathcal F})\to H^ q (X_{0et}, i^*_{et} {\mathcal F}). \] It was conjectured [see Séminaire de géométrie algébrique, 1963-64 (SGA 4, Part I--III), Lect. Notes Math. 269 (1972; Zbl 0234.00007), 270 (1972; Zbl 0237.00012) and 305 (1973; Zbl 0245.00002)], that \(\rho_ q^{\mathcal F}\) is an isomorphism provided \({\mathcal F}\) is torsion. This conjecture is shown to be true. It is proved by an induction on \(q\) with the aid of a certain vanishing result on étale cohomology. While in general the main result does not hold for non-torsion \({\mathcal F}\) it is used by \textit{K. Fujiwara} [``Theory of tubular neighborhoods in étale topology'' (Preprint, 1992)] in order to obtain other comparison theorems.