We study the nonnegative part \overline {G_ {> 0}} of the De Concini-Procesi compactification of a semisimple algebraic group \overline {G_ {> 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_ {> 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_ {> 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 .