We give geometric descriptions of the category C_k(n,d) of rational polynomial representations of GL_n over a field k of degree d for d less than or equal to n, the Schur functor and Schur-Weyl duality. The descriptions and proofs use a modular version of Springer theory and relationships between the equivariant geometry of the affine Grassmannian and the nilpotent cone for the general linear groups. Motivated by this description, we propose generalizations for an arbitrary connected complex reductive group of the category C_k(n,d) and the Schur functor.
Given the nilpotent cone of a complex reductive Lie algebra, we consider its equivariant constructible derived category of sheaves with coefficients in an arbitrary field. This category and its subcategory of perverse sheaves play an important role in Springer theory and the theory of character sheaves. We show that the composition of the Fourier--Sato transform on the Lie algebra followed by restriction to the nilpotent cone restricts to an autoequivalence of the derived category of the nilpotent cone. In the case of @math , we show that this autoequivalence can be regarded as a geometric version of Ringel duality for the Schur algebra.