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.

We reduce some key calculations of compositions of morphisms between Soergel bimodules (" Soergel calculus") to calculations in the nil Hecke ring (" Schubert calculus"). This formula has several applications in modular representation theory.

We study a class of perverse sheaves on some spherical varieties which include the strata of the De ConciniProcesi completion of a symmetric variety. This is a generalization of the theory of (parabolic) character sheaves.

Let G be a semisimple group over an algebraically closed field. Steinberg has associated to a Coxeter element G of minimal length G a subvariety G of G isomorphic to an affine space of dimension G which meets the regular unipotent class G in exactly one point. In this paper this is generalized to the case where G is replaced by any elliptic element in the Weyl group of minimal length G in its conjugacy class, G is replaced by a subvariety G of G isomorphic to an affine space of dimension G , and G is replaced by a unipotent class G of codimension G in such a way that the intersection of G and G is finite.

Let $G$ be a simple simply connected algebraic group and let $\mathfrak{g}_*$ be a $\mathbf{Z}/m$-grading on its Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$. G. Lusztig and Z. Yun, in a recent series of articles, studied the classification of simple $G_0$-equivariant perverse sheaves on the nilpotent cone of $\mathfrak{g}_i$ for $i\in \mathbf{Z}/m$, where $G_0$ is the exponentiation of the degree zero piece $\mathfrak{g}_0$. They proved a decomposition of the equivariant derived category of $\ell$-adic sheaves on the nilpotent cone of $\mathfrak{g}_i$ into blocks, each generated by a certain cuspidal local system via the procedure of {\itshape spiral inductions}. We prove a conjecture of them, stating that there is a bijection between 1) the set of simple perverse sheaves in a fixed block and 2) the set of simple modules of a block of a (trigonometric) degenerate double affine Hecke algebra (dDAHA). This is a dDAHA analogue of the Deligne--Langlands correspondence for affine Hecke algebras proven by Kazhdan--Lusztig. Our results generalise a previous work of E. Vasserot, where the perverse sheaves in the principal block were considered.