Student Number Theory Seminar 2019-20
3/2/20: John O'Brien -- The Satake equivalence II: The geometric formulation
Abstract: We continue our discussion of the Satake equivalence and Langlands dual groups with an introduction to the geometric Satake equivalence. The classical Satake isomorphism establishes an algebra isomorphism between the spherical Hecke algebra of one group G and the Grothendieck group of the category of representations of the dual. We wish for a stronger statement--an equivalence of categories between a categorical analogue of the spherical Hecke algebra of G and the category of representations of the dual of G. The geometric Satake isomorphism establishes this equivalence, using the geometry of the affine Grassmannian of G to construct a suitable "spherical Hecke category" of G. In this talk, we discuss the affine Grassmannian and introduce the tools needed to understand the geometric Satake equivalence.