R-equivalence and A^1-connectedness in anisotropic groups

Abstract

We show that if G is an anisotropic, semisimple, absolutely almost simple, simply connected group over a field k, then two elements of G over any field extension of k are R-equivalent if and only if they are A^1-equivalent. As a consequence, we see that Sing_*(G) cannot be A^1-local for such groups. This implies that the A^1-connected components of a semisimple, absolutely almost simple, simply connected group over a field k form a sheaf of abelian groups.