Étale homotopy types and bisimplicial hypercovers (Q1945807)

Suppose \((C, x)\) is a pointed locally connected small Grothendieck site, and let \((X, z)\) denote any connected locally fibrant simplicial sheaf \(X\) equipped with a ``geometric'' point \(z\). Following Artin-Mazur, an étale homotopy type of \(X\) may then be defined via the geometrically pointed hypercovers of \(X\) to yield a pro-object of the homotopy category, but this is not the only possible definition. In étale homotopy of simplicial schemes, Friedlander defined another étale homotopy type of a simplicial scheme \(X\) by taking diagonals of geometrically pointed bisimplicial hypercovers. In this paper, these two types are shown to be pro-isomorphic by means of a direct comparison of the associated cocycle categories. Friedlander's construction of étale homotopy types as actual pro-simplicial sets relies on a rigidity property of the étale topology that may not always be available for arbitrary sites; the cocycle methods employed here do not have this limitation. By consequence, the associated homotopy types constructed from hypercovers and bisimplicial hypercovers are shown to be pro-isomorphic on any locally connected small Grothendieck site, and the comparison at the level of cocycles shows, in particular, that both abelian and non-abelian sheaf cohomology may be computed via bisimplicial hypercovers on arbitrary small Grothendieck sites.