On the depth \(r\) Bernstein projector (Q730328)

The \textit{Bernstein center} \(Z_G\) of a reductive \(p\)-adic group \(G\) is the endomorphism algebra of the identity functor on the category of smooth representations of \(G\). But \(Z_G\) can also be viewed as a collection of invariant distributions on \(G\), or as a ring of functions on the set \(\mathrm{Irr}(G)\) of irreducible representations of \(G\). The \textit{depth \(r\) Bernstein projector} \(\Pi_r\) is the element of \(Z_G\) corresponding to the function \(f_r\) that takes the value \(0\) on irreducible representations of depth more than \(r\), and the value \(1\) on irreducible representations of depth \(\leq r\). The present paper gives a formula for \(\Pi_r\) in terms of the building of \(G\). The Bernstein projector gives us a decomposition of the category of smooth representations of \(G\) into full subcategories whose objects are classified by their depth being greater than \(r\) or not: \(R(G) = R(G)_{\leq r} \times R(G)_{>r}\). Of course, this is a small special case of the Bernstein decomposition of \(R(G)\), but the present paper gives an independent proof. As a corollary of their formula for \(\Pi_r\), the authors show that the invariant distribution \(E_r\) corresponding to \(\Pi_r\) is stable. Moreover, \(E_0\) is supported on the topologically unipotent set, and equals the restriction of the Steinberg character. Since the linear span of the projectors \(E_r\) forms a subring of \(Z_G\), the main result offers evidence of the \textit{stable center conjecture}, which asserts that the subspace of stable distributions in \(Z_G\) is a subring.