Special reductive groups over an arbitrary field

Abstract

A linear algebraic group G defined over a field k is called special if every G-torsor over every field extension of k is trivial. In 1958 Grothendieck classified special groups in the case where the base field is algebraically closed. In this paper we describe the derived subgroup and the coradical of a special reductive group over an arbitrary field k. We also classify special semisimple groups, special reductive groups of inner type and special quasisplit reductive groups over an arbitrary field k.