Products of trees and ${\rm PGL}_2$-torsors over the punctured affine line

Abstract

The goal of this article is to present a computation of the Galois cohomology of the group $G = \mathrm{PGL}_2$ over rings of Laurent polynomials. This computation recovers the main result of \cite{CGP} in this case by a new method, based on the analysis of actions on appropriate geometric objects (products of trees and, in general, of affine buildings), which was already used in \cite{ARR} to give a new proof of the theorem of Raghunathan-Ramanathan \cite{RR} concerning Galois cohomology over polynomial rings. Going beyond Galois cohomology, this method also enables one to determine the finite subgroups in the group of points over relevant polynomial rings. In view of these and other potential applications of the method in different situations (in particular, in the study of algebraic groups over the coordinate rings of general affine curves), we have attempted to make our exposition largely self-contained and accessible to broad mathematical audience.