Nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials and matrix coefficients for unramified principal series (Q2369425)

Despite the growing importance of nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials \(E_{\lambda}(q,t)\), not much is known with respect to their interpretation in classical representation-theoretical terms. The main difficulties are in the lack of explicit formulas and in the fact that most special functions (Weyl characters, spherical functions, conformal blocks) appearing in representation theory are Weyl group invariant (and the nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials are not invariant under the action of the Weyl group). The goal of the paper under review is to give an interpretation for the limit \(E_{\lambda}(\infty,t)\), as \(q\) tends to infinity, in the spirit of the limit \(P_{\lambda}(\infty,t)\) of their symmetric counterparts, which describe the values of spherical functions on groups \(G\) over \(\mathfrak p\)-adic fields with respect to special maximal compact subgroups \(K\) of \(G\). The zonal spherical functions are in fact matrix coefficients for irreducible spherical representations, and the main results of the paper give the values of specific matrix coefficients for unramified principal series representations of \(G\). In contrast with the case of symmetric Macdonald polynomials where the results are established by comparing explicit formulas, the noncommutative case considered in the paper is based on a recursion formula obtained earlier by the author.