Mayer–Vietoris sequences for complexes of tori

Abstract In the patching setting, given a factorization inverse system of fields over which patching for finite-dimensional vector spaces holds, together with a crossed module over the inverse limit field, the corresponding six-term Mayer–Vietoris sequence is constructed, generalizing the classical result of Harbater–Hartmann–Krashen for linear algebraic groups. When the crossed module is a two-term complex of tori, the above sequence is extended into a nine-term exact sequence, notably without any assumption on global domination of Galois cohomology of the inverse system. As an application, we show that patching holds for nonabelian second Galois cohomology of reductive groups with smooth centers. We then obtain a weak local–global principle for this cohomology set in the simply connected semisimple case. We also rediscover a well-known local–global principle for indices of central simple algebras.