Minimal length elements in some double cosets of Coxeter groups

Let W be a finite irreducible Coxeter group. The aim of this paper is to describe the maximal and minimal length elements in conjugacy classes of involutions in W.

Minimal Length Elements in Twisted Conjugacy Classes of Finite Coxeter Groups

We give a geometric proof that minimal length elements in a (twisted) conjugacy class of a finite Coxeter group $W$ have remarkable properties with respect to conjugation, taking powers in the associated Braid group and taking centralizer in $W$.

Involution words are variations of reduced words for twisted involutions in Coxeter groups. They arise naturally in the study of the Bruhat order, of certain Iwahori-Hecke algebra modules, and of orbit closures in flag varieties. Specifically, to any twisted involutions $x$, $y$ in a Coxeter group $W$ with automorphism $*$, we associate a set of involution words $\hat{\mathcal{R}}_*(x,y)$. This set is the disjoint union of the reduced words of a set of group elements $\mathcal{A}_*(x,y)$, which we call the atoms of $y$ relative to $x$. The atoms, in turn, are contained in a larger set $\mathcal{B}_*(x,y) \subset W$ with a similar definition, whose elements we refer to as Hecke atoms. Our main results concern some interesting properties of the sets $\hat{\mathcal{R}}_*(x,y)$ and $\mathcal{A}_*(x,y) \subset \mathcal{B}_*(x,y)$. For finite Coxeter groups we prove that $\mathcal{A}_*(1,y)$ consists of exactly the minimal-length elements $w \in W$ such that $w^* y \leq w$ in Bruhat order, and conjecture a more general property for arbitrary Coxeter groups. In type $A$, we describe a simple set of conditions characterizing the sets $\mathcal{A}_*(x,y)$ for all involutions $x,y \in S_n$, giving a common generalization of three recent theorems of Can, Joyce, and Wyser. We show that the atoms of a fixed involution in the symmetric group (relative to $x=1$) naturally form a graded poset, while the Hecke atoms surprisingly form an equivalence class under the "Chinese relation" studied by Cassaigne, Espie, et al. These facts allow us to recover a recent theorem of Hu and Zhang describing a set of "braid relations" spanning the involution words of any self-inverse permutation. We prove a generalization of this result giving an analogue of Matsumoto's theorem for involution words in arbitrary Coxeter groups.

On the minimal elements in conjugacy classes of the complex reflection group G(r,1,n)

Let $W$ be an extended affine Weyl group. We prove that the minimal length elements $w_{{\mathcal{O}}}$ of any conjugacy class ${\mathcal{O}}$ of $W$ satisfy some nice properties, generalizing results of Geck and Pfeiffer [On the irreducible characters of Hecke algebras, Adv. Math. 102 (1993), 79–94] on finite Weyl groups. We also study a special class of conjugacy classes, the straight conjugacy classes. These conjugacy classes are in a natural bijection with the Frobenius-twisted conjugacy classes of some $p$-adic group and satisfy additional interesting properties. Furthermore, we discuss some applications to the affine Hecke algebra $H$. We prove that $T_{w_{{\mathcal{O}}}}$, where ${\mathcal{O}}$ ranges over all the conjugacy classes of $W$, forms a basis of the cocenter $H/[H,H]$. We also introduce the class polynomials, which play a crucial role in the study of affine Deligne–Lusztig varieties He [Geometric and cohomological properties of affine Deligne–Lusztig varieties, Ann. of Math. (2) 179 (2014), 367–404].

The main algorithmic problems of group theory posed by M. Dehn are the problem of words, the problem of the conjugation of words for finitely presented groups, and the group’s isomorphism problem. Among the works related to the study of the M. Dehn’s problems, the most outstanding ones are the work of P. S. Novikov who proved the undecidability of the problem of words and the conjugacy problem for finitely presented groups as well as the undecidability of the problem of isomorphism of groups. In this regard, the main algorithmic problems and their various generalizations are studied in certain classes of groups. Coxeter groups were introduced by H. S. M. Coxeter: every reflection group is a Coxeter group if its generating elements are reflections with respect to hyperplanes limiting its fundamental polyhedron. H. S. M. Coxeter listed all the reflection groups in three-dimensional Euclidean space and proved that they are all Coxeter groups and every finite Coxeter group is isomorphic to some reflection group in the three-dimensional Euclidean space which elements have a common fixed point. In an algebraic aspect Coxeter groups are studied starting with works by J. Tits who solved the problem of words in certain Coxeter groups. The article describes the known results obtained in solving algorithmic problems in Coxeter groups; the main purpose of the paper is to analyze of the results of solving algorithmic problems in Coxeter groups that were obtained by members of the Tula algebraic school ’Algorithmic problems of theory of the groups and semigroups ’ under the supervision of V. N. Bezverkhnii. It reviews assertions and theorems proved by the authors of the article for the various classes of Coxeter groups: Coxeter groups of large and extra-large types, Coxeter groups with a tree-structure, and Coxeter groups with n-angled structure. The basic approaches and methods of evidence among which the method of diagrams worked out by van Kampen, reopened by R. Lindon and refined by V. N. Bezverkhnii concerning the introduction of R-cancellations, special R-cancellations, special ring cancellations as well as method of graphs, method of types worked out by V. N. Bezverkhnii, method of special set of words designed by V. N. Bezverkhnii on the basis of the generalization of Nielsen method for free construction of groups. Classes of group considered in the article include all Coxeter groups which may be represented as generalized tree structures of Coxeter groups formed from Coxeter groups with tree structure with replacing some vertices of the corresponding tree-graph by Coxeter groups of large or extra-large types as well as Coxeter groups with n-angled structure.

For an element 𝑤 of a Coxeter group 𝑊, there are two important attributes, namely its length, and its expression as a product of disjoint cycles in its action on Φ, the root system of 𝑊. This paper investigates the interaction between these two features of 𝑤, introducing the notion of the crossing number of 𝑤, κ ⁢ ( w ) \kappa(w) . Writing w = c 1 ⁢ ⋯ ⁢ c r w=c_{1}\cdots c_{r} as a product of disjoint cycles, we associate to each cycle c i c_{i} a “crossing number” κ ⁢ ( c i ) \kappa(c_{i}) , which is the number of positive roots 𝛼 in c i c_{i} for which w ⋅ α w\cdot\alpha is negative. Let Seq κ ⁢ ( w ) {\mathrm{Seq}}_{\kappa}({w}) be the sequence of κ ⁢ ( c i ) \kappa(c_{i}) written in increasing order, and let κ ⁢ ( w ) = max ⁡ Seq κ ⁢ ( w ) \kappa(w)=\max{\mathrm{Seq}}_{\kappa}({w}) . The length of 𝑤 can be retrieved from this sequence, but Seq κ ⁢ ( w ) {\mathrm{Seq}}_{\kappa}({w}) provides much more information. For a conjugacy class 𝑋 of 𝑊, let κ min ⁢ ( X ) = min ⁡ { κ ⁢ ( w ) ∣ w ∈ X } \kappa_{\min}(X)=\min\{\kappa(w)\mid w\in X\} and let κ ⁢ ( W ) \kappa(W) be the maximum value of κ min \kappa_{\min} across all conjugacy classes of 𝑊. We call κ ⁢ ( w ) \kappa(w) and κ ⁢ ( W ) \kappa(W) , respectively, the crossing numbers of 𝑤 and 𝑊. Here we determine the crossing numbers of all finite Coxeter groups and of all universal Coxeter groups. We also show, among other things, that for finite irreducible Coxeter groups, if 𝑢 and 𝑣 are two elements of minimal length in the same conjugacy class 𝑋, then Seq κ ⁢ ( u ) = Seq κ ⁢ ( v ) {\mathrm{Seq}}_{\kappa}({u})={\mathrm{Seq}}_{\kappa}({v}) and κ min ⁢ ( X ) = κ ⁢ ( u ) = κ ⁢ ( v ) \kappa_{\min}(X)=\kappa(u)=\kappa(v) .

Minimal length elements of Coxeter groups

Cone types, automata, and regular partitions in Coxeter groups

Parabolic subgroups WI of Coxeter systems (W,S) and their ordinary and double cosets W/WI and WI\W/WJ appear in many contexts in combinatorics and Lie theory, including the geometry and topology of generalized flag varieties and the symmetry groups of regular polytopes. The set of ordinary cosets wWI , for I ⊆ S, forms the Coxeter complex of W , and is well-studied. In this extended abstract, we look at a less studied object: the set of all double cosets WIwWJ for I,J ⊆ S. Each double coset can be presented by many different triples (I, w, J). We describe what we call the lex-minimal presentation and prove that there exists a unique such choice for each double coset. Lex-minimal presentations can be enumerated via a finite automaton depending on the Coxeter graph for (W, S). In particular, we present a formula for the number of parabolic double cosets with a fixed minimal element when W is the symmetric group Sn. In that case, parabolic subgroups are also known as Young subgroups. Our formula is almost always linear time computable in n, and the formula can be generalized to any Coxeter group.

This paper studies ane Deligne-Lusztig varieties X ~ w(b) in the ane ag variety of a quasi-split tamely ramied group. We describe the geometric structure of X ~ w(b) for a minimal length element ~ w in the conjugacy class of an extended ane Weyl group. We then provide a reduction method that relates the structure of X ~ w(b) for arbitrary elements ~ w in the extended ane Weyl group to those associated with minimal length elements. Based on this reduction, we establish a connection between the dimension of ane Deligne-Lusztig varieties and the degree of the class polynomial of ane ~

We derive presentations of the interval groups related to all quasi-Coxeter elements in the Coxeter group of type D n . Type D n is the only infinite family of finite Coxeter groups that admits proper quasi-Coxeter elements. The presentations we obtain are over a set of generators in bijection with what we call a Carter generating set, and the relations are those defined by the related Carter diagram together with a twisted cycle or a cycle commutator relator, depending on whether the quasi-Coxeter element is a Coxeter element or not. The proof is based on the description of two combinatorial techniques related to the intervals of quasi-Coxeter elements.In a subsequent work [4], we complete our analysis to cover all the exceptional cases of finite Coxeter groups, and establish that almost all the interval groups related to proper quasi-Coxeter elements are not isomorphic to the related Artin groups, hence establishing a new family of interval groups with nice presentations [4, 5]. Alongside the proof of the main results, we establish important properties related to the dual approach to Coxeter and Artin groups.

Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system, and write $S=\{s_i:i\in I\}$ , where I is a finite index set. Fix a nonempty convex subset $\mathscr {L}$ of W. If W is of type A, then $\mathscr {L}$ is the set of linear extensions of a poset, and there are important Bender–Knuth involutions $\mathrm {BK}_i\colon \mathscr {L}\to \mathscr {L}$ indexed by elements of I. For arbitrary W and for each $i\in I$ , we introduce an operator $\tau _i\colon W\to W$ (depending on $\mathscr {L}$ ) that we call a noninvertible Bender–Knuth toggle; this operator restricts to an involution on $\mathscr {L}$ that coincides with $\mathrm {BK}_i$ in type A. Given a Coxeter element $c=s_{i_n}\cdots s_{i_1}$ , we consider the operator $\mathrm {Pro}_c=\tau _{i_n}\cdots \tau _{i_1}$ . We say W is futuristic if for every nonempty finite convex set $\mathscr {L}$ , every Coxeter element c and every $u\in W$ , there exists an integer $K\geq 0$ such that $\mathrm {Pro}_c^K(u)\in \mathscr {L}$ . We prove that finite Coxeter groups, right-angled Coxeter groups, rank-3 Coxeter groups, affine Coxeter groups of types $\widetilde A$ and $\widetilde C$ , and Coxeter groups whose Coxeter graphs are complete are all futuristic. When W is finite, we actually prove that if $s_{i_N}\cdots s_{i_1}$ is a reduced expression for the long element of W, then $\tau _{i_N}\cdots \tau _{i_1}(W)=\mathscr {L}$ ; this allows us to determine the smallest integer $\mathrm {M}(c)$ such that $\mathrm {Pro}_c^{{\mathrm {M}}(c)}(W)=\mathscr {L}$ for all $\mathscr {L}$ . We also exhibit infinitely many non-futuristic Coxeter groups, including all irreducible affine Coxeter groups that are not of type $\widetilde A$ , $\widetilde C$ , or $\widetilde G_2$ .

Billey, Konvalinka, Petersen, Solfstra, and Tenner recently presented a method for counting parabolic double cosets in Coxeter groups, and used it to compute $p_n$, the number of parabolic double cosets in $S_n$, for $n\leq13$. In this paper, we derive a new formula for $p_n$ and an efficient polynomial time algorithm for evaluating this formula. We use these results to compute $p_n$ for $n\leq5000$ and to prove an asymptotic formula for $p_n$ that was conjectured by Billey et al.