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.

Let G ⊆ \tilde{G} be two quasisplit connected reductive groups over a local field of characteristic zero and having the same derived group. Although the existence of L-packets is still conjectural in general, it is believed that the L-packets of G should be the restriction of those of \tilde{G}. Motivated by this, we hope to construct the L-packets of \tilde{G} from those of G. The primary example in our mind is when G = Sp(2n), whose L-packets have been determined by Arthur [The endoscopic classification of representations: orthogonal and symplectic groups, Colloquium Publications, vol. 61 (American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2013)], and \tilde{G} = GSp(2n). As a first step, we need to consider some well-known conjectural properties of L-packets. In this paper, we show how they can be deduced from the conjectural endoscopy theory. As an application, we obtain some structural information about L-packets of \tilde{G} from those of G.

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.