Towards a Global Springer Theory I: The affine Weyl group action

Abstract

We propose a generalization of Springer representations to the context of groups over a global function field. The global counterpart of the Grothendieck simultaneous resolution is the parabolic Hitchin fibration. We construct an action of the affine Weyl group on the direct image complex of the parabolic Hitchin fibration. In particular, we get representations of the affine Weyl group on the cohomology of parabolic Hitchin fibers, providing the first step towards a global Springer theory.