Hecke action on the principal block

Abstract: In this paper we construct an action of the affine Hecke category (in its "Soergel bimodules" incarnation) on the principal block of representations of a simply-connected semisimple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic bigger than the Coxeter number. This confirms a conjecture of G. Williamson and the second author, and provides a new proof of the tilting character formula in terms of antispherical $p$-Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials.