Contravariant pairings between standard Whittaker modules and Verma modules

Abstract

We classify contravariant pairings between standard Whittaker modules and Verma modules over a complex semisimple Lie algebra. These contravariant pairings are useful in extending several classical techniques for category $\mathcal{O}$ to the Mili\v{c}i\'{c}--Soergel category $\mathcal{N}$. We introduce a class of costandard modules which generalize dual Verma modules, and describe canonical maps from standard to costandard modules in terms of contravariant pairings. We show that costandard modules have unique irreducible submodules and share the same composition factors as the corresponding standard Whittaker modules. We show that costandard modules give an algebraic characterization of the global sections of costandard twisted Harish-Chandra sheaves on the associated flag variety, which are defined using holonomic duality of $\mathcal{D}$-modules. We prove that with these costandard modules, blocks of category $\mathcal{N}$ have the structure of highest weight categories and we establish a BGG reciprocity theorem for $\mathcal{N}$.