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.