Essential dimension of semisimple groups of type \(B\) (Q6115733)

Let \(G\) be an algebraic group over a field \(F\) and consider the Galois cohomology functor \(H^{1}(-,G): \mathsf{Fields}_{F} \rightarrow \mathsf{Sets}\) which sends a field extension \(K\) over \(F\) from the category \(\mathsf{Fields}_{F}\) of field extensions of \(F\) to the set \(H^{1}(K,G)\) of isomorphism classes of \(G\)-torsors over \(\mathrm{Spec}(K)\) in the category of sets. The essential dimension \(\mathrm{ed}(\eta)\) of a \(G\)-torsor \(\eta \in H^{1}(K,G)\) is defined as the minimal transcendental degree of an intermediate field \(F \subset L \subset K\) such that \(\eta\) lies in the image of \(H^{1}(L,G) \rightarrow H^{1}(K,G)\). The essential dimension of \(G\), denoted \(\mathrm{ed}(G)\), is defined by the maximal value of \(\mathrm{ed}(\eta)\), where the maximum ranges over all field extensions \(K/F\) and all \(\eta \in H^{1}(K,G)\). In this paper, the authors determine the essential dimension of an arbitrary semisimple group of type \(B\) of the form \(G=H/\boldsymbol{\mu}\), where \(H=\mathbf{Spin}(2n_{1}+1) \times \dots \times \mathbf{Spin}(2n_{k}+1)\), over a field of characteristic 0, for all \(n_1, \dots , n_{k} \geq 7\), and a central subgroup \(\boldsymbol{\mu}\) of \(H\) not containing the center of \(\mathbf{Spin}(2n_{i}+1)\) as a direct factor for every \(i \in \{1, \dots, k\}\).