Local-global principles for torsors over arithmetic curves

Abstract: We consider local-global principles for torsors under linear algebraic groups, over function fields of curves over complete discretely valued fields. The obstruction to such a principle is a version of the Tate-Shafarevich group; and for groups with rational components, we compute it explicitly and show that it is finite. This yields necessary and sufficient conditions for local-global principles to hold. Our results rely on first obtaining a Mayer-Vietoris sequence for Galois cohomology and then showing that torsors can be patched. We also give new applications to quadratic forms and central simple algebras.