Let
$W_{\mathrm {aff}}$ be an extended affine Weyl group,
$\mathbf {H}$ be the corresponding affine Hecke algebra over the ring
$\mathbb {C}[\mathbf {q}^{\frac {1}{2}}, \mathbf {q}^{-\frac {1}{2}}]$, and J be Lusztig’s asymptotic Hecke algebra, viewed as a based ring with basis
$\{t_w\}$. Viewing J as a subalgebra of the
$(\mathbf {q}^{-\frac {1}{2}})$-adic completion of
$\mathbf {H}$ via Lusztig’s map
$\phi $, we use Harish-Chandra’s Plancherel formula for p-adic groups to show that the coefficient of
$T_x$ in
$t_w$ is a rational function of
$\mathbf {q}$, with denominator depending only on the two-sided cell containing w, and dividing a power of the Poincaré polynomial of the finite Weyl group. As an application, we conjecture that these denominators encode more detailed information about the failure of the Kazhdan-Lusztig classification at roots of the Poincaré polynomial than is currently known.
Along the way, we show that upon specializing
$\mathbf {q}=q>1$, the map from J to the Harish-Chandra Schwartz algebra is injective. As an application of injectivity, we give a novel criterion for an Iwahori-spherical representation to have fixed vectors under a larger parahoric subgroup in terms of its Kazhdan-Lusztig parameter.