Rationally Isomorphic Hermitian Forms and Torsors of Some Non-Reductive Groups

Abstract

Let $R$ be a semilocal Dedekind domain. Under certain assumptions, we show that two (not necessarily unimodular) hermitian forms over an $R$-algebra with involution, which are rationally ismorphic and have isomorphic semisimple coradicals, are in fact isomorphic. The same result is also obtained for quadratic forms equipped with an action of a finite group. The results have cohomological restatements that resemble the Grothendieck--Serre conjecture, except the group schemes involved are not reductive. We show that these group schemes are closely related to group schemes arising in Bruhat--Tits theory.

27 pages. Changes from previous version: Section 5 was split into two sections, several proofs have been simplified, other mild modifications