A combinatorial formula expressing periodic $R$-polynomials

Abstract: In 1980, Lusztig introduced the periodic Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials, which are conjectured to have important information about the characters of irreducible modules of a reductive group over a field of positive characteristic, and also about those of an affine Kac-Moody algebra at the critical level. The periodic Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials can be computed by using another family of polynomials, called the periodic $R$-polynomials. In this paper, we prove a (closed) combinatorial formula expressing periodic $R$-polynomials in terms of the "doubled" Bruhat graph associated to a finite Weyl group and a finite root system.