What is the intuition behind the concept of Tate twists?

Solution 1:

Tate twists have to do with fundamental classes in etale (co)homology.

Usually we talk about etale cohomology, but we can also talk about homology, just as the dual of cohomology.

If $X$ is smooth and projective of dimension $d$, then $H^{2d}(X)$ will be one-dimensional, and transform under $\chi^{-d}$; equivalently, $H_{2d}(X)$ will be one-dimensional, and transform under $\chi^d$.

How do you see this? Of course there is a rigorous proof that you can read, but intuitively, if you think about how fundamental classes are constructed in topology, you can convince yourself that a fundamental class in dimension $d$ will behave like a $d$-fold product of a fundamental class in dimension $1$.

So we reduce to the one-dimensional case.

It is then easy to see that there is a canonical isomorphism $$H_2(\mathbb P^1) \cong H_1(\mathbb A^1\setminus \{0\}).$$ Finally, this last homology is the same as the $\ell$-adic Tate module of $\mathbb A^1 \setminus \{0\}$ (thought of as the multiplicative group), and that Tate module is one-dimensional, with Galois action given by $\chi$.

As for the Tate conjecture:

Imagine that $Y$ is a smooth connected closed subvariety of codimension $j$ of $X$, itself smooth and projective, say, of dimension $d$.

Let's work with homology first, because it's more intuitive.

The map $Y\to X$ will induce a map $H_{2(d-j)}(Y) \to H_{2(d-j)}(X)$. Now since $Y$ has dimension $d-j$, the source of this map is one-dimensional, with Galois action given by $\chi^{d-j}$. So a codimension $j$ cycle gives a Galois-invariant line in $H_{2(d-j)}(X)$ (the image of the above map) which transforms via $\chi^{d-j}$.

Remember that I said $H_{2(d-j)}(X)$ was just the dual of $H^{2(d-j)}(X)$. Now cup product gives a perfect pairing (by Poincare duality) $$H^{2(d-j)}(X) \times H^{2j}(X) \to H^{2d}(X),$$ compatible with Galois. Since $X$ is $d$-dimensional, the Galois action on the one-dimensional space $H^{2d}(X)$ is via $\chi^{-d}$. So we see that as Galois reps., the dual to $H^{2(d-j)}(X)$ can be identified with $H^{2j}(X)\otimes \chi^d$.

Thus our codimension $j$ cycle gives a line in $H^{2j}(X)\otimes \chi^d$ which transforms under Galois via $\chi^{d-j}$, which is the same thing as an invariant line in $H^{2j}(X)\otimes \chi^j$.

So codimension $j$ cycles contribute invariant lines in $H^{2j}(X)(j)$, and the Tate conjecture is that the full space of Galois invariants here is actually spanned by the lines coming from cycles.