We introduce and study mutation of torsion pairs, as a generalization of mutation of cluster tilting objects, rigid objects and maximal rigid objects. It is proved that any mutation of a torsion pair is again a torsion pair. A geometric realization of mutation of torsion pairs in the cluster category of type A_n or A_\infty is given via rotation of Ptolemy diagrams.

The endoscopic classification via the stable trace formula comparison provides certain character relations between irreducible cuspidal automorphic representations of classical groups and their global Arthur parameters, which are certain automorphic representations of general linear groups. It is a question of J. Arthur and W. Schmid that asks how to construct concrete modules for irreducible cuspidal automorphic representations of classical groups in term of their global Arthur parameters? In this paper, we formulate a general construction of concrete modules, using Bessel periods, for cuspidal automorphic representations of classical groups with generic global Arthur parameters. Then we establish the theory for orthogonal and unitary groups, based on certain well expected conjectures. Among the consequences of the theory in this paper is that the global Gan-Gross-Prasad conjecture for those classical groups is proved in full generality in one direction and with a global assumption in the other direction.

In this paper we describe a machinery for homological calculations of representations of FI_G, and use it to develop a local cohomology theory over any commutative Noetherian ring. As an application, we show that the depth introduced by the second author coincides with a more classical invariant from commutative algebra, and obtain upper bounds of a few important invariants of FI_G-modules in terms of torsion degrees of their local cohomology groups.

Suppose G is a reductive algebraic group, T is a Cartan subgroup of G, N= Norm (T), and W= N/T is the Weyl group. If w W has order d, it is natural to ask about the orders lifts of w to N. It is straightforward to see that the minimal order of a lift of w has order d or 2d, but it can be a subtle question which holds. We first consider the question of when W itself lifts to a subgroup of N (in which case every element of W lifts to an element of N of the same order). We then consider two natural classes of elements: regular and elliptic. In the latter case all lifts of w are conjugate, and therefore have the same order. We also consider the twisted case.

Let W be an extended affine Weyl group. We prove that the minimal length elements W of any conjugacy class W of W satisfy some nice properties, generalizing results of Geck and Pfeiffer [<i>On the irreducible characters of Hecke algebras</i>, Adv. Math. <b>102</b> (1993), 7994] on finite Weyl groups. We also study a special class of conjugacy classes, the straight conjugacy classes. These conjugacy classes are in a natural bijection with the Frobenius-twisted conjugacy classes of some W -adic group and satisfy additional interesting properties. Furthermore, we discuss some applications to the affine Hecke algebra W