Potent categorical representations

Abstract

We introduce and motivate -- based on ongoing joint work with Germán Stefanich -- the notion of potent categorical representations of a complex reductive group $G$, specifically a conjectural Langlands correspondence identifying potent categorical representations of $G$ and its Langlands dual $\check{G}$. We emphasize the symplectic nature of potent categorical representations in their simultaneous dependence on parameters in maximal tori for $G$ and $\check{G}$, specifically how their conjectural Langlands correspondence fits within a 2-categorical Fourier transform. Our key tool to make various ideas precise is higher sheaf theory and its microlocalization, specifically a theory of ind-coherent sheaves of categories on stacks. The constructions are inspired by the physics of 3d mirror symmetry and S-duality on the one hand, and the theory of double affine Hecke algebras on the other. We also highlight further conjectures related to ongoing programs in and around geometric representation theory.

submitted to proceedings of 2026 ICM