Continuous group actions on profinite spaces (Q626744)

Let \({\widehat{\mathcal S}}\) be the category of profinite spaces. This means simplicial objects in the category of profinite sets. Let \(k\) be a field, \(\bar k\) a separable closure of \(k\) and \(G_{k}=Gal({\bar k}/k).\) Let \(X\) be a variety over k, \({\bar X}=X{\otimes}_{k}{\bar k}\) and \(\widehat{Et}{\bar X}\) be the profinitely completed étale topological type of \({\bar X}\) [cf. \textit{E. M. Friedlander}, Etale homotopy of simplicial schemes. Annals of Mathematics Studies, 104. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press and University of Tokyo Press (1982; Zbl 0538.55001)]. There is a natural sequence of profinite spaces \[ \widehat{Et}{\bar X}\rightarrow \widehat{Et}{X}\rightarrow \widehat{Et}{k} \] that in view of the equivalence \(\widehat{Et}{k}\cong BG_{k}\) suggests to think of \(\widehat{Et}{X}\) as the homotopy orbit of \(\widehat{Et}{\bar X}\) under the \(G_{k}\)-action. The author proves the following generalization of the theorem of \textit{D. A. Cox} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 76, 17--22 (1979; Zbl 0442.14004)]. Theorem. Let \(k\) be a field with absolute Galois group \(G_{k}\) and let \(X\) be a geometrically connected variety over \(k.\) Then the canonical map \[ ({\lim}_{L} \widehat{Et}{X}) {\times}_{G_{k}}EG_{k} \rightarrow \widehat{Et}{X} \] is a weak equivalence of profinite spaces, where the limit is taken over all finite Galois extensions \(L/k\) in \(\bar k\) and \(X_{L}\) denotes \(X{\otimes}_{k}L\).