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.

We study the cluster combinatorics of d-cluster tilting objects in d-cluster categories. Using mutations of maximal rigid objects in d-cluster categories, which are defined in a similar way to mutations for d-cluster tilting objects, we prove the equivalences between d-cluster tilting objects, maximal rigid objects and complete rigid objects. Using the chain of d+1 triangles of d-cluster tilting objects in [O. Iyama, Y. Yoshino, Mutations in triangulated categories and rigid Cohen–Macaulay modules, Invent. Math. 172 (1) (2008) 117–168], we prove that any almost complete d-cluster tilting object has exactly d+1 complements, compute the extension groups between these complements, and study the middle terms of these d+1 triangles. All results are the extensions of corresponding results on cluster tilting objects in cluster categories established for d-cluster categories in [A. Buan, R. Marsh, M. Reineke, I. Reiten, G. Todorov, Tilting theory and cluster combinatorics, Adv. Math. 204 (2006) 572–618]. They are applied to the Fomin–Reading generalized cluster complexes of finite root systems defined and studied in [S. Fomin, N. Reading, Generalized cluster complexes and Coxeter combinatorics, Int. Math. Res. Not. 44 (2005) 2709–2757; H. Thomas, Defining an m-cluster category, J. Algebra 318 (2007) 37–46; K. Baur, R. Marsh, A geometric description of m-cluster categories, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 360 (2008) 5789–5803; K. Baur, R. Marsh, A geometric description of the m-cluster categories of type D_n, preprint, arXiv:math.RT/0610512; see also Int. Math. Res. Not. 2007 (2007), doi:10.1093/imrn/rnm011], and to that of infinite root systems [B. Zhu, Generalized cluster complexes via quiver representations, J. Algebraic Combin. 27 (2008) 25–54].

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.

We give a geometric realization, the tagged rotation, of the AR-translation on the generalized cluster category associated to a surface S with marked points and non-empty boundary, which generalizes Brüstle–Zhang’s result for the puncture free case. As an application, we show that the intersection of the shifts in the 3-Calabi–Yau derived category D(Γ_S) associated to the surface and the corresponding Seidel–Thomas braid group of D(Γ_S) is empty, unless S is a polygon with at most one puncture (i.e. of type A or D).

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 .