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.

By a case-free approach we give a precise description of the closure of a Steinberg fiber within a twisted wonderful compactification of a simple linear algebraic group. In the nontwisted case this description was earlier obtained by the first author.

This paper is a contribution to the general problem of giving an explicit description of the basic locus in the reduction modulo p of Shimura varieties. Motivated by\cite {Vollaard-Wedhorn} and\cite {Rapoport-Terstiege-Wilson}, we classify the cases where the basic locus is (in a natural way) the union of classical Deligne-Lusztig sets associated to Coxeter elements. We show that if this is satisfied, then the Newton strata and Ekedahl-Oort strata have many nice properties.

The unipotent variety of a reductive algebraic group G plays an important role in the representation theory. In this paper, we will consider the closure U of the unipotent variety in the De ConciniProcesi compactification G of a connected simple algebraic group G. We will prove that U-U is a union of some G-stable pieces introduced by Lusztig in [Moscow Math. J 4 (2004) 869896]. This was first conjectured by Lusztig. We will also give an explicit description of U. It turns out that similar results hold for the closure of any Steinberg fiber in G.

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.