Locally isotropic Steinberg groups I. Centrality of the $\mathrm K_2$-functor

Abstract: We begin to study Steinberg groups associated with a locally isotropic reductive group $G$ over a arbitrary ring. We propose a construction of such a Steinberg group functor as a group object in a certain completion of the category of presheaves. We also show that it is a crossed module over $G$ in a unique way, in particular, that the $\mathrm K_2$-functor is central. If $G$ is globally isotropic in a suitable sense, then the Steinberg group functor exists as an ordinary group-valued functor and all such abstract Steinberg groups are crossed modules over the groups of points of $G$.