Whittaker patterns in the geometry of moduli spaces of bundles on curves (Q1826272)

Let \(G\) be a split and connected reductive group over a finite field \(K\). Let \(\widehat{K}=K((t))\) be the field of Laurent series. The purpose of this paper is to give a geometric meaning to the notion of a Whittaker function on \(G(\widehat{K})\). There are a number of conceptional difficulties here. The authors explain how these may be overcome; the problems are quite technical and the bulk of the paper is devoted to their solution. The main application is to a conjecture formulated by the authors and \textit{D. A. Kazhdan} in their paper [``Geometric realization of Whittaker functions and the Langlands conjecture'' J. Am. Math. Soc. 1, 451--484 (1998; Zbl 1068.11501)]. The conjecture has also been proved by \textit{B. C. Ngô}, and \textit{P. Polo} [``Résolutions de Demazure affines et formule de Casselman-Shalika géométrique'', J. Algebr. Geom. 10, 515--547 (2001; Zbl 1041.14002)].