Let
be a global field
of characteristic not
.
The embedding problem for maximal tori in a classical group
can
be described in terms of algebras with involution. The aim of this paper is to give an
explicit description of the obstruction group to the Hasse principle in terms
of ramification properties of certain commutative étale algebras, and to
show that this group is isomorphic to one previously defined by the second
author. This builds on our previous work as well as on results of Borovoi. In
particular, we show that this explicit obstruction group can be identified with
the group of Borovoi (J. Reine Angew. Math.473 (1996), 181–194), where
is the
homogeneous space associated to the embedding functor defined by the second
author (Comment. Math. Helv.89 (2014), 671–717).