In this paper, we discuss some partitions of affine flag varieties. These partitions include as special cases the partition of affine flag variety into affine Deligne-Lusztig varieties and the affine analogue of the partition of flag varieties into $\cb_w (b) $ introduced by Lusztig in\cite {L1} as part of the definition of character sheaves.

Let <i>H</i> denote a spherical subgroup within a semisimple algebraic group <i>G</i>. In this paper we study the closures of the finitely many <i>H</i>-orbits in the flag variety of <i>G</i>. Using the language of Frobenius splitting we provide a criterion for these closures to have nice geometric and cohomological properties. We then show how the criterion applies to the spherical subgroups of minimal rank studied by N. Ressayre. Finally, we also provide applications of the criterion to orbit closures which are not multiplicity-free in the sense defined by M. Brion.

Let W a be an affine Weyl group and : W a W 0 be the natural projection to the corresponding finite Weyl group. We say that w W a has finite Coxeter part if (w) is conjugate to a Coxeter element of W 0. The elements with finite Coxeter part are a union of conjugacy classes of W a. We show that for each conjugacy class O of W a with finite Coxeter part there exists a unique maximal proper parabolic subgroup W J of W a, such that the set of minimal length elements in O is exactly the set of Coxeter elements in W J. Similar results hold for twisted conjugacy classes.

We study the nonnegative part \overline {G_ {&gt; 0}} of the De Concini-Procesi compactification of a semisimple algebraic group \overline {G_ {&gt; 0}} , as defined by Lusztig. Using positivity properties of the canonical basis and parametrization of flag varieties, we will give an explicit description of \overline {G_ {&gt; 0}} . This answers the question of Lusztig in Total positivity and canonical bases, Algebraic groups and Lie groups (ed. GI Lehrer), Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997, pp. 281-295. We will also prove that \overline {G_ {&gt; 0}} has a cell decomposition which was conjectured by Lusztig.

In this paper, we study some relation between the cocenter H(G) of the Hecke algebra H (G) of a connected reductive group G over a nonarchimedean local field and the cocenter H(M) of its Levi subgroups M. Given any Newton component of H(G), we construct the induction map i from the corresponding Newton component of H(M) to it. We show that this map is an isomorphism. This leads to the BernsteinLusztig type presentation of the cocenter H(G), which generalizes the work [11] on the affine Hecke algebras. We also show that the map i we constructed is adjoint to the Jacquet functor.

Let G be a connected semi-simple algebraic group of adjoint type over an algebraically closed field and let ar G be the wonderful compactification of G. For a fixed pair (B,B  ) of opposite Borel subgroups of G, we look at intersections of Lusztigs G-stable pieces and the B  B-orbits in ar G , as well as intersections of BB-orbits and B  B  -orbits in ar G . We give explicit conditions for such intersections to be nonempty, and in each case, we show that every nonempty intersection is smooth and irreducible, that the closure of the intersection is equal to the intersection of the closures, and that the nonempty intersections form a strongly admissible partition of .

We determine a basis of the (twisted) cocenter of graded affine Hecke algebras with arbitrary parameters. In this setting, we prove that the kernel of the (twisted) trace map is the commutator subspace (the Density theorem) and that the image is the space of good forms (the trace PaleyWiener theorem).

Let <i>G</i> be a semisimple adjoint group over <b>C</b> and <i></i> be the De ConciniProcesi completion of <i>G</i>. In this paper, we define a Lagrangian subvariety of the cotangent bundle of <i></i> such that the singular support of any character sheaf on <i></i> is contained in .

We determine a basis of the (twisted) cocenter of graded affine Hecke algebras with arbitrary parameters. In this setting, we prove that the kernel of the (twisted) trace map is the commutator subspace (Density theorem) and that the image is the space of good forms (trace Paley-Wiener theorem).

The cocenter of an affine Hecke algebra plays an important role in the study of representations of the affine Hecke algebra and the geometry of affine DeligneLusztig varieties (see for example, He and Nie in Compos Math 150(11):19031927, 2014; He in Ann Math 179:367404, 2014; Ciubotaru and He in Cocenter and representations of affine Hecke algebras, 2014). In this paper, we give a BernsteinLusztig type presentation of the cocenter. We also obtain a comparison theorem between the class polynomials of the affine Hecke algebra and those of its parabolic subalgebras, which is an algebraic analog of the HodgeNewton decomposition theorem for affine DeligneLusztig varieties. As a consequence, we present a new proof of the emptiness pattern of affine DeligneLusztig varieties (Grtz et al. in Compos Math 146(5):13391382, 2010; Grtz et al. in Ann Sci cole Norm Sup, 2012).