The Steinberg variety and representations of reductive groups. (Q834827)

Let \(G\) be a connected reductive algebraic group of rank \(r\). Let \(\mathcal B\) be the variety of Borel subgroups of \(G\). For a unipotent element \(u\) in \(G\), denote by \(\mathcal B_u\) the closed subvariety of \(\mathcal B\) consisting of those subgroups that contain \(u\). Let \(C\) denote the conjugacy class of \(u\). \textit{R. Steinberg}, [in Invent. Math. 36, 209-224 (1976; Zbl 0352.20035)], introduced a variety of triples \[ S=\{(v,B,B')\in C\times\mathcal B\times\mathcal B\mid v\in B\cap B'\}, \] which enabled him to prove the equality \(\dim Z_G(u)=r+2\dim\mathcal B_u\). Let \(\mathfrak n\) denote the variety of nilpotent elements in the Lie algebra of \(G\). The Steinberg variety of \(G\) is \[ Z=\{(x,B,B')\in\mathfrak n\times\mathcal B\times\mathcal B\mid x\in\text{Lie}(B)\cap\text{Lie}(B')\}. \] In this paper, the authors give an overview of some of the main results in geometric representation theory that have been proved by means of the Steinberg variety. The Steinberg variety was used to give an alternative approach to Springer's representations and played a central role in the proof of the Deligne-Langlands conjecture for Hecke algebras by Kazhdan and Lusztig.