Reflection triangles in Coxeter groups and biautomaticity

Some new biautomatic Coxeter groups

If (W,S) is a Coxeter system, then an element of W is a reflection if it is conjugate to some element of S. To each Coxeter system there is an associated Coxeter diagram. A Coxeter system is called reflection preserving if every automorphism of W preserves reflections in this Coxeter system. As a direct application of our main theorem, we classify all reflection preserving even Coxeter systems. More generally, if (W,S) is an even Coxeter system, we give a combinatorial condition on the diagram for (W,S) that determines whether or not two even systems for W have the same set of reflections. If (W,S) is even and (W,S′) is not even, then these systems do not have the same set of reflections. A Coxeter group is said to be reflection independent if any two Coxeter systems (W,S) and (W,S′) have the same set of reflections. We classify all reflection independent even Coxeter groups.

Let (W,S, \Gamma) be a Coxeter system: a Coxeter group W with S its distinguished generator set and \Gamma its Coxeter graph. In the present paper, we always assume that the cardinality l=|S| ofS is finite. A Coxeter element of W is by definition a product of all generators s\in S in any fixed order. We use the notation C(W) to denote the set of all the Coxeter elements in W. These elements play an important role in the theory of Coxeter groups, e.g., the determination of polynomial invariants, the Poincare polynomial, the Coxeter number and the group order of W (see [1–5] for example). They are also important in representation theory (see [6]). In the present paper, we show that the set C(W) is in one-to-one correspondence with the setC(\Gamma) of all acyclic orientations of\Gamma . Then we use some graph-theoretic tricks to compute the cardinality c(W) of the setC(W) for any Coxeter group W. We deduce a recurrence formula for this number. Furthermore, we obtain some direct formulae of c(W) for a large family of Coxeter groups, which include all the finite, affine and hyperbolic Coxeter groups. The content of the paper is organized as below. In Section 1, we discuss some properties of Coxeter elements for simplifying the computation of the value c(W). In particular, we establish a bijection between the sets C(W) andC(\Gamma) . Then among the other results, we give a recurrence formula of c(W) in Section 2. Subsequently we deduce some closed formulae of c(W) for certain families of Coxeter groups in Section 3.

Small roots, low elements, and the weak order in Coxeter groups

First-order aspects of Coxeter 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 $\widetilde G_2$ .

The isomorphism problem for finitely generated Coxeter groups is the problem of deciding if two finite Coxeter matrices define isomorphic Coxeter groups. Coxeter [4] solved this problem for finite irreducible Coxeter groups. Recently there has been considerable interest and activity on the isomorphism problem for arbitrary finitely generated Coxeter groups. In this paper we describe a family of isomorphism invariants of a finitely generated Coxeter group W . Each of these invariants is the isomorphism type of a quotient group W/N of W by a characteristic subgroup N . The virtue of these invariants is that W/N is also a Coxeter group. For some of these invariants, the isomorphism problem of W/N is solved and so we obtain isomorphism invariants that can be effectively used to distinguish isomorphism types of finitely generated Coxeter groups. We emphasize that even if the isomorphism problem for finitely generated Coxeter groups is eventually solved, several of the algorithms described in our paper will still be useful because they are computational fast and would most likely be incorporated into an efficient computer program that determines if two finite rank Coxeter systems have isomorphic groups. In §2, we establish notation. In §3, we describe two elementary quotienting operations on a Coxeter system that yields another Coxeter system. In §4, we describe the even part isomorphism invariant of a finitely generated Coxeter group. In §5, we review some matching theorems. In §6, we describe the even isomorphism invariant of a finitely generated Coxeter group. In §7, we define basic characteristic subgroups of a finitely generated Coxeter

A Coxeter system is a pair (W, S) where W is a group and where S is a set of involutions in W such that W has a presentation of the form W=〈S|(st)m(s,t)〉 Here m(s, t) denotes the order of st in W and in the presentation for W, (s, t) ranges over all pairs in S × S such that m(s, t) ≠ ∞. We further require the set S to be finite. W is a Coxeter group and S is a fundamental set of generators for W. Obviously, if S is a fundamental set of generators, then so is wSw−1, for any w∈W. Our main result is that, under certain circumstances, this is the only way in which two fundamental sets of generators can differ. In Section 3, we will prove the following result as Theorem 3.1.

We study the Hecke algebra $\H(\bq)$ over an arbitrary field $\FF$ of a Coxeter system $(W,S)$ with independent parameters $\bq=(q_s\in\FF:s\in S)$ for all generators. This algebra is always linearly spanned by elements indexed by the Coxeter group $W$. This spanning set is indeed a basis if and only if every pair of generators joined by an odd edge in the Coxeter diagram receive the same parameter. In general, the dimension of $\H(\bq)$ could be as small as $1$. We construct a basis for $\H(\bq)$ when $(W,S)$ is simply laced. We also characterize when $\H(\bq)$ is commutative, which happens only if the Coxeter diagram of $(W,S)$ is simply laced and bipartite. In particular, for type A we obtain a tower of semisimple commutative algebras whose dimensions are the Fibonacci numbers. We show that the representation theory of these algebras has some features in analogy/connection with the representation theory of the symmetric groups and the 0-Hecke algebras.

We prove that even Coxeter groups, whose Coxeter diagrams contain no (4, 4, 2) triangles, are conjugacy separable. In particular, this applies to all right-angled Coxeter groups or word hyperbolic even Coxeter groups. For an arbitrary Coxeter group W, we also study the relationship between Coxeter generating sets that give rise to the same collection of parabolic subgroups. As an application, we show that if an automorphism of W preserves the conjugacy class of every sufficiently short element then it is inner. We then derive consequences for the outer automorphism groups of Coxeter groups. © 2014 University of Illinois.

A graph $X$ is defined inductively to be $(a_0,\dots,a_{n-1})$-regular if $X$ is $a_0$-regular and for every vertex $v$ of $X$, the sphere of radius $1$ around $v$ is an $(a_1,\dots,a_{n-1})$-regular graph. Such a graph $X$ is said to be highly regular (HR) of level $n$ if $a_{n-1}\neq 0$. Chapman, Linial and Peled studied HR-graphs of level 2 and provided several methods to construct families of graphs which are expanders globally and locally. They ask whether such HR-graphs of level 3 exist. In this paper we show how the theory of Coxeter groups, and abstract regular polytopes and their generalisations, can lead to such graphs. Given a Coxeter system $(W,S)$ and a subset $M$ of $S$, we construct highly regular quotients of the 1-skeleton of the associated Wythoffian polytope $\mathcal{P}_{W,M}$, which form an infinite family of expander graphs when $(W,S)$ is indefinite and $\mathcal{P}_{W,M}$ has finite vertex links. The regularity of the graphs in this family can be deduced from the Coxeter diagram of $(W,S)$. The expansion stems from applying superapproximation to the congruence subgroups of the linear group $W$. This machinery gives a rich collection of families of HR-graphs, with various interesting properties, and in particular answers affirmatively the question asked by Chapman, Linial and Peled.

A Coxeter system is an ordered pair (W,S) where S is the generating set in a particular type of presentation for the Coxeter group W. A subgroup of W is called special if it is generated by a subset of S. Amalgamated product decompositions of a Coxeter group having special factors and special amalgamated subgroup are easily recognized from the presentation of the Coxeter group. If a Coxeter group is a subgroup of the fundamental group of a given graph of groups, then the Coxeter group is also the fundamental group of a graph of special subgroups, where each vertex and edge group is a subgroup of a conjugate of a vertex or edge group of the given graph of groups. A vertex group of an arbitrary graph of groups decomposition of a Coxeter group is shown to split into parts conjugate to special groups and parts that are subgroups of edge groups of the given decomposition. Several applications of the main theorem are produced, including the classification of maximal FA subgroups of a finitely generated Coxeter group as all conjugates of certain special subgroups.

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.

This chapter introduces the notion of a Tits index and the notion of the relative Coxeter diagram of a Tits index. It first defines a Tits index, which can be anisotropic or isotropic, quasi-split or split, before considering a number of propositions regarding compatible representations. It then gives a proof of the theorem that includes two assumptions about a Coxeter system, focusing on the absolute Coxeter system, the relative Coxeter system, and the relative Coxeter group of the Tits index, as well as the absolute Coxeter diagram (or absolute type), the relative Coxeter diagram (or relative type), and the absolute rank and the relative rank of the Tits index. The chapter concludes with some observations about the case that (W, S) is spherical, irreducible or affine.

Let (W,S) be a Coxeter system of finite rank (ie |S| is finite) and let A be the associated Coxeter (or Davis) complex. We study chains of pairwise parallel walls in A using Tits' bilinear form associated to the standard root system of (W,S). As an application, we prove the strong parallel wall conjecture of G Niblo and L Reeves [J Group Theory 6 (2003) 399--413]. This allows to prove finiteness of the number of conjugacy classes of certain one-ended subgroups of W, which yields in turn the determination of all co-Hopfian Coxeter groups of 2--spherical type.