Star operations for affine Hecke algebras

In this paper, we consider the star operations for (graded) affine Hecke algebras which preserve certain natural filtrations. We show that, up to inner conjugation, there are only two such star operations for the graded Hecke algebra: the first, denoted $\star$, corresponds to the usual star operation from reductive $p$-adic groups, and the second, denoted $\bullet$ can be regarded as the analogue of the compact star operation of a real group considered by \cite{ALTV}. We explain how the star operation $\bullet$ appears naturally in the Iwahori-spherical setting of $p$-adic groups via the endomorphism algebras of Bernstein projectives. We also prove certain results about the signature of $\bullet$-invariant forms and, in particular, about $\bullet$-unitary simple modules.