We study an arithmetic analog of the Hall algebra of a curve, when the curve
is replaced by the spectrum of the integers compactified at infinity. The role
of vector bundles is played by lattices with quadratic forms. This algebra H
consists of automorphic forms with respect to GL_n(Z), n>0, with multiplication
given by the parabolic pseudo-Eisenstein series map.
We give a new presentation of the Drinfeld double of the elliptic Hall
algebra introduced in a previous work with I. Burban. This presentation is
similar in spirit to Drinfeld's `new realization' of quantum affine algebras.
This answers, in the case of elliptic curves, a question of Kapranov concerning
functional relations satisfied by (principal, unramified) Eisenstein series for
the groups GL(n) over a function field. It also provides proofs of some recent
conjectures of Feigin, Feigin, Jimbo, Miwa and Mukhin.
Let X be any smooth projective curve defined over a finite field. We show
that the characteristic functions of any Harder-Narasimhan strata S_a of
Bun_{GL_n}X belongs to the spherical Hall algebra H_X^{sph} of X. We give a
geometric analog of the above result: the intersection cohomology sheaf IC(S_a)
belongs to the category of simple Eisenstein sheaves over Bun_{GL_n}X.
These are the notes for a series of lectures given on the theory of canonical
and crystal bases for Hall algebras (for a summer school in Grenoble in 2008).
It may be viewed as a follow-up to arXiv:math/0611617. It covers the
construction, due to Lusztig, of the canonical bases for the Hall algebra of a
quiver Q in terms of a certain category of perverse sheaves over the moduli
space of representations of Q.