Local models of Shimura varieties and a conjecture of Kottwitz

We give a group theoretic definition of "local models" as sought after in the theory of Shimura varieties. These are projective schemes over the integers of a $p$-adic local field that are expected to model the singularities of integral models of Shimura varieties with parahoric level structure. Our local models are certain mixed characteristic degenerations of Grassmannian varieties; they are obtained by extending constructions of Beilinson, Drinfeld, Gaitsgory and the second-named author to mixed characteristics and to the case of general (tamely ramified) reductive groups. We study the singularities of local models and hence also of the corresponding integral models of Shimura varieties. In particular, we study the monodromy (inertia) action and show a commutativity property for the sheaves of nearby cycles. As a result, we prove a conjecture of Kottwitz which asserts that the semi-simple trace of Frobenius on the nearby cycles gives a function which is central in the parahoric Hecke algebra.Comment: 88 pages, several corrections and change

Twisted loop groups and their affine flag varieties

We develop a theory of affine flag varieties and of their Schubert varieties for reductive groups over a Laurent power series local field k((t)) with k a perfect field. This can be viewed as a generalization of the theory of affine flag varieties for loop groups to a "twisted case"; a consequence of our results is that our construction also includes the flag varieties for Kac-Moody Lie algebras of affine type. We also give a coherence conjecture on the dimensions of the spaces of global sections of the natural ample line bundles on the partial flag varieties attached to a fixed group over k((t)) and some applications to local models of Shimura varieties.Comment: LaTex, 73 page