Two coniveau filtrations and algebraic equivalence over finite fields

Abstract: We extend the basic theory of the coniveau and strong coniveau filtrations to the $\ell$-adic setting. By adapting the examples of Benoist--Ottem to the $\ell$-adic context, we show that the two filtrations differ over any algebraically closed field of characteristic not $2$. When the base field $\mathbb{F}$ is finite, we show that the equality of the two filtrations over the algebraic closure $\overline{\mathbb{F}}$ has some consequences for algebraic equivalence for codimension-$2$ cycles over $\mathbb{F}$. As an application, we prove that the third unramified cohomology group $H^{3}{\text{nr}}(X,\mathbb{Q}{\ell}/\mathbb{Z}_{\ell})$ vanishes for a large class of rationally chain connected threefolds $X$ over $\mathbb{F}$, confirming a conjecture of Colliot-Th\'el`ene and Kahn.