Higher nearby cycles and central sheaves on affine flag varieties

Abstract: In this paper we generalize and study a notion of (unipotent) nearby cycles over a higher dimensional base based on Be\u{i}linson's description of unipotent nearby cycles, following an idea of Gaitsgory. This generalization, in the setting of affine Grassmannians, is required in recent work of Bezrukavnikov-Braverman-Finkelberg-Kazhdan.