Refined unramified cohomology of schemes

Abstract: We introduce the notion of refined unramified cohomology of algebraic schemes and prove comparison theorems that identify some of these groups with cycle groups. This recovers for cycles of low codimensions on smooth projective varieties previous results of Bloch--Ogus, Colliot-Th\'el`ene--Voisin, Kahn, Voisin, and Ma. We combine our approach with the Bloch--Kato conjecture, proven by Voevodsky, to show that on a smooth complex projective variety, any homologically trivial torsion cycle with trivial Abel--Jacobi invariant has coniveau 1. This establishes a torsion version of a conjecture of Jannsen originally formulated with rational coefficients. We further show that the group of homologically trivial torsion cycles modulo algebraic equivalence has a finite filtration (by coniveau) such that the graded quotients are determined by higher Abel--Jacobi invariants that we construct. This may be seen as a variant for torsion cycles modulo algebraic equivalence of a conjecture of Green. We also prove $\ell$-adic analogues of these results over any field which contains all $\ell$-power roots of unity.