Chiral principal series categories

Abstract

This thesis begins a study of principal series categories in geometric representation theory using the Beilinson-Drinfeld theory of chiral algebras. We study Whittaker objects in the unramified principal series category. This provides an alternative approach to the Arkhipov-Bezrukavnikov theory of Iwahori-Whittaker sheaves that exploits the geometry of the Feigin-Frenkel semi-infinite flag manifold.