AbstractWe prove a 1979 conjecture of Lusztig on the cohomology of semi-infinite Deligne–Lusztig varieties attached to division algebras over local fields. We also prove the two conjectures of Boyarchenko on these varieties. It is known that in this setting, the semi-infinite Deligne–Lusztig varieties are ind-schemes comprised of limits of certain finite-type schemes {X_{h}}. Boyarchenko’s two conjectures are on the maximality of {X_{h}} and on the behavior of the torus-eigenspaces of their cohomology. Both of these conjectures were known in full generality only for division algebras with Hasse invariant {1/n} in the case {h=2} (the “lowest level”) by the work of Boyarchenko–Weinstein on the cohomology of a special affinoid in the Lubin–Tate tower. We prove that the number of rational points of {X_{h}} attains its Weil–Deligne bound, so that the cohomology of {X_{h}} is pure in a very strong sense. We prove that the torus-eigenspaces of the cohomology group {H_{c}^{i}(X_{h})} are irreducible representations and are supported in exactly one cohomological degree. Finally, we give a complete description of the homology groups of the semi-infinite Deligne–Lusztig varieties attached to any division algebra, thus giving a geometric realization of a large class of supercuspidal representations of these groups. Moreover, the correspondence {\theta\mapsto H_{c}^{i}(X_{h})[\theta]} agrees with local Langlands and Jacquet–Langlands correspondences. The techniques developed in this paper should be useful in studying these constructions for p-adic groups in general.
Supercuspidal representations and the theta correspondence
