Intersection complexes and unramified $L$-factors

Abstract:

Let $X$ be an affine spherical variety, possibly singular, and $\mathsf L^+X$ its arc space. The intersection complex of $\mathsf L^+X$, or rather of its finite-dimensional formal models, is conjectured to be related to special values of local unramified $L$-functions. Such relationships were previously established in Braverman–Finkelberg–Gaitsgory–Mirković for the affine closure of the quotient of a reductive group by the unipotent radical of a parabolic, and in Bouthier–Ngô–Sakellaridis for toric varieties and $L$-monoids. In this paper, we compute this intersection complex for the large class of those spherical $G$-varieties whose dual group is equal to $\check G$, and the stalks of its nearby cycles on the horospherical degeneration of $X$. We formulate the answer in terms of a Kashiwara crystal, which conjecturally corresponds to a finite-dimensional $\check G$-representation determined by the set of $B$-invariant valuations on $X$. We prove the latter conjecture in many cases. Under the sheaf–function dictionary, our calculations give a formula for the Plancherel density of the IC function of $\mathsf L^+X$ as a ratio of local $L$-values for a large class of spherical varieties.