A vanishing theorem for Dirac cohomology of standard modules

Abstract

This paper studies the Dirac cohomology of standard modules in the setting of graded Hecke algebras with geometric parameters. We prove that the Dirac cohomology of a standard module vanishes if and only if the module is not twisted-elliptic tempered. The proof makes use of two deep results. One is some structural information from the generalized Springer correspondence obtained by S. Kato and Lusztig. Another one is a computation of the Dirac cohomology of tempered modules by Barbasch-Ciubotaru-Trapa and Ciubotaru. We apply our result to compute the Dirac cohomology of ladder representations for type $A_n$. For each of such representations with non-zero Dirac cohomology, we associate to a canonical Weyl group representation. We use the Dirac cohomology to conclude that such representations appear with multiplicity one.