Whittaker Functions and Demazure Operators

Abstract: We consider a natural basis of the Iwahori fixed vectors in the Whittaker model of an unramified principal series representation of a split semisimple p- adic group, indexed by the Weyl group. We show that the elements of this basis may be computed from one another by applying Demazure-Lusztig operators. The precise identities involve correction terms, which may be calculated by a combinatorial algorithm that is identical to the computation of the fibers of the Bott-Samelson resolution of a Schubert variety. The Demazure-Lusztig operators satisfy the braid and quadratic relations satisfied by the ordinary Hecke operators, and this leads to an action of the affine Hecke algebra on functions on the maximal torus of the L-group. This action was previously described by Lusztig using equivariant K-theory of the flag variety, leading to the proof of the Deligne-Langlands conjecture by Kazhdan and Lusztig. In the present paper, the action is applied to give a simple formula for the basis vectors of the Iwahori Whittaker functions.