Let O_25 be the vertex algebraic braided tensor category of finite-length modules for the Virasoro Lie algebra at central charge 25 whose composition factors are the irreducible quotients of reducible Verma modules. We show that O_25 is rigid and that its simple objects generate a semisimple tensor subcategory that is braided tensor equivalent to an abelian 3-cocycle twist of the category of finite-dimensional sl_2-modules. We also show that this sl_2-type subcategory is braid-reversed tensor equivalent to a similar category for the Virasoro algebra at central charge 1. As an application, we construct a simple conformal vertex algebra which contains the Virasoro vertex operator algebra of central charge 25 as a PSL_2(C)-orbifold. We also use our results to study Arakawa's chiral universal centralizer algebra of SL_2 at level -1, showing that it has a symmetric tensor category of representations equivalent to Rep PSL_2(C). This algebra is an extension of the tensor product of Virasoro vertex operator algebras of central charges 1 and 25, analogous to the modified regular representations of the Virasoro algebra constructed earlier for generic central charges by I. Frenkel-Styrkas and I. Frenkel-M. Zhu.

We give a geometric proof that any minimal length element in a (twisted) conjugacy class of a finite Coxeter group W has remarkable properties with respect to conjugation, taking powers in the associated braid monoid and taking the centralizer in W.

In this article we propose a geometric description of Arthur packets for p-adic groups using vanishing cycles of perverse sheaves. Our approach is inspired by the 1992 book by Adams, Barbasch and Vogan on the Langlands classification of admissible representations of real groups and follows the direction indicated by Vogan in his 1993 paper on the Langlands correspondence. Using vanishing cycles, we introduce and study a functor from the category of equivariant perverse sheaves on the moduli space of certain Langlands parameters to local systems on the regular part of the conormal bundle for this variety. In this article we establish the main properties of this functor and show that it plays the role of microlocalization in the work of Adams, Barbasch and Vogan. We use this to define ABV-packets for pure rational forms of p-adic groups and propose a geometric description of the transfer coefficients that appear in Arthur's main local result in the endoscopic classification of representations. This article includes conjectures modelled on Vogan's work, especially the prediction that Arthur packets are ABV-packets for p-adic groups. We gather evidence for these conjectures by verifying them in numerous examples.

Motivated by spectral gluing patterns in the Betti Langlands program, we show that for any reductive group G, a parabolic subgroup P, and a topological surface M, the (enhanced) spectral Eisenstein series category of M is the factorization homology over M of the E2-Hecke category H_{G,P} =IndCoh(LS_{G,P}(D^2, S^1)), where LS_{G,P}(D^2, S^1) denotes the moduli stack of G-local systems on a disk together with a P-reduction on the boundary circle. More generally, for any pair of stacks Y → Z satisfying some mild conditions and any map between topological spaces N → M, we define (Y, Z)^{N,M} = Y^N ×_{Z^N} {Z^M} to be the space of maps from M to Z along with a lift to Y of its restriction to N. Using the pair of pants construction, we define an E_n-category H_n(Y, Z) = IndCoh_0((Y, Z)^{S^n−1,D^n})_{Y}), and compute its factorization homology on any d-dimensional manifold M with d ≤ n, \int_M H_n(Y, Z) = IndCoh_0(Y, Z)^{∂(M×D^n−d),M}_{Y^M}, where IndCoh_0 is the sheaf theory introduced by ArinkinGaitsgory and Beraldo. Our result naturally extends previous known computations of Ben-Zvi–Francis–Nadler and Beraldo.

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.