On the Gille theorem for the relative projective line: I

Abstract

We prove a relative version of a theorem on torsors on the projective line due to Philippe Gille. As a consequence we obtain a ``weak homotopy invariance'' result for torsors under reductive group schemes defined over arbitrary semi-local regular domains. Specifically, only regular semi-local domains with infinite residue fields are regarded in this preprint. However, all results of the present preprint are true (after minor modifications) for arbitrary semi-local regular domains. This will be the topic of our next preprint.