Unramified cohomology and Brauer--Manin pairing

Abstract: We show that the Tate module of the $\ell$-adic unramified cohomology $H^3_{\nr}(X, {\Q_\ell}/{\Z_\ell})$ of a smooth projective surface $X$ over a local or strictly local field $k$ of residue characteristic prime to $\ell$ vanishes under suitable conditions. We apply this to answer some questions concerning the left and right kernels of the Brauer--Manin pairing for open subvarieties of $X$. To prove the vanishing theorem, we establish Bloch's formula for the Chow group of codimension-two cycles on a semistable model of $X$, and derive applications to the restriction map for such cycles to the closed fiber of the model.