In this paper, given a split extension of an arbitrary Coxeter group by automorphisms of the Coxeter graph, we determine the involutions in that extension whose centralizer has finite index. Our result has applications to many problems such as the isomorphism problem of general Coxeter groups. In the argument, some properties of certain special elements and of the fixed-point subgroups by graph automorphisms in Coxeter groups, which are of independent interest, are also given.
There is a well-known classification of conjugacy classes of involutions in finite Coxeter groups, in terms of subsets of nodes of their Coxeter graphs. In many cases, the product of an involution with the longest element is again an involution. We identify the conjugacy class of this product involution in terms of said classification.
We review the properties of the finite Coxeter groups which are most useful for applications to cohomological invariants, namely their classes of involutions and their "cubes" (abelian subgroups generated by reflections).
Commuting involution graphs have been studied for finite Coxeter groups and for affine groups of classical type. The purpose of this short note is to establish some general results for commuting involution graphs in affine Coxeter groups, and to deal with types $\tilde F_4$ and $\tilde G_2$. Types $\tilde E_6$ $\tilde E_7$ and $\tilde E_8$ are more substantial and we will address these in a forthcoming paper.
In this paper, we consider the automorphism groups of the Cayley graph with respect to the Coxeter generators and the Davis complex of an arbitrary Coxeter group. We determine for which Coxeter groups these automorphism groups are discrete. In the case where they are discrete, we express them as semidirect products of two obvious families of automorphisms. This extends a result of Haglund and Paulin.
We show that for a large class $\mathcal{W}$ of Coxeter groups the following holds: Given a group $W_Γ$ in $\mathcal{W}$, the automorphism group ${\rm Aut}(W_Γ)$ virtually surjects onto some infinite Coxeter group. In particular, the group ${\rm Aut}(W_Γ)$ is virtually indicable and therefore does not have Kazhdan's property (T).
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.
In this work we characterise Cayley graphs of Coxeter groups with respect to the standard generating set that admit uncountable vertex stabilisers. As a corollary, we fully identify finitely generated Coxeter groups for which the automorphism group of their Cayley graph with respect to the standard generating set is not discrete when equipped with the permutation topology. As an application, we also provide new explicit constructions of vertex-transitive graphs of infinite degree that have locally compact automorphism groups.
An odd Coxeter group $W$ is one which admits a Coxeter system $(W,S)$ for which all the exponents $m_{ij}$ are either odd or infinity. The paper investigates the family of odd Coxeter groups whose associated labeled graphs $\mathcal{V}_{(W,S)}$ are trees. It is known that two Coxeter groups in this family are isomorphic if and only if they admit Coxeter systems having the same rank and the same multiset of finite exponents. In particular, each group in this family is isomorphic to a group that admits a Coxeter system whose associated labeled graph is a star shaped tree. We give the complete de…
We consider the question of determining whether a given group (especially one generated by involutions) is a right-angled Coxeter group. We describe a group invariant, the involution graph, and we characterize the involution graphs of right-angled Coxeter groups. We use this characterization to describe a process for constructing candidate right-angled Coxeter presentations for a given group or proving that one cannot exist. We provide some first applications. In addition, we provide an elementary proof of rigidity of the defining graph for a right-angled Coxeter group. We also recover a resul…
The excess of an element $w$ of a finite Coxeter group $W$ is the minimal value of $l(x) + l(y) - l(w)$, where $x$, $y$ are elements of $W$ such that $x^2 = y^2 = 1$ and $w = xy$. Every element of a finite Coxeter group is either an involution or the product of two involutions, so the concept of excess is well defined. It can be extended to strongly real classes of infinite Coxeter groups. Earlier work by the authors showed that every conjugacy class of a finite Coxeter group contains an element of minimal length and excess zero. The current paper shows that each conjugacy class also contains …
We study fixed point properties of the automorphism group of the universal Coxeter group Aut$(W_n)$. In particular, we prove that whenever Aut$(W_n)$ acts by isometries on complete $d$-dimensional CAT$(0)$ space with $d<\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor$, then it must fix a point. We also prove that Aut$(W_n)$ does not have Kazhdan's property (T). Further, strong restrictions are obtained on homomorphisms of Aut$(W_n)$ to groups that do not contain a copy of Sym(n).
For $W$ a Coxeter group, let $\mathcal{W} = \{ w \in W \;| \; w = xy \; \mbox{where} \; x, y \in W \; \mbox{and} \; x^2 = 1 = y^2 \}$. If $W$ is finite, then it is well known that $W = \mathcal{W}$. Suppose that $w \in \mathcal{W}$. Then the minimum value of $\ell(x) + \ell(y) - \ell(w)$, where $x, y \in W$ with $w = xy$ and $x^2 = 1 = y^2$, is called the \textit{excess} of $w$ ($\ell$ is the length function of $W$). The main result established here is that $w$ is always $W$-conjugate to an element with excess equal to zero.
We generalise the notion of a separating intersection of links (SIL) to give necessary and sufficient criteria on the defining graph $Γ$ of a right-angled Coxeter group $W_Γ$ so that its outer automorphism group is large: that is, it contains a finite index subgroup that admits the free group $F_2$ as a quotient. When $Out(W_Γ)$ is not large, we show it is virtually abelian. We also show that the same dichotomy holds for the outer automorphism groups of graph products of finite abelian groups. As a consequence, these groups have property (T) if and only if they are finite, or equivalently $Γ$ …
We describe an algorithm to identify a minimal set of "braid relations" which span and preserve all sets of involution words for twisted Coxeter systems of finite or affine type. We classify the cases in which adding the smallest possible set of "half-braid" relations to the ordinary braid relations produces a spanning set: in the untwisted case, this occurs for the Coxeter systems which are finite with rank two or type $A_n$, or affine with rank three or type $\tilde A_n$. These results generalize recent work of Hu and Zhang on the finite classical cases.
We initiate the study of analogues of symmetric spaces for the family of finite dihedral groups. In particular, we investigate the structure of the automorphism group, characterize the involutions of the automorphism group, and determine the fixed-group and symmetric space of each automorphism.
We investigate the combinatorial and geometric properties of automorphism groups of universal right-angled Coxeter groups, which are the automorphism groups of free products of copies of Z_2. It is currently an open question as to whether or not these automorphism groups have non-positive curvature. Analogous to Outer Space as a model for Out(F_n), we prove that the natural combinatorial and topological model for their outer automorphism groups can \emph{not} be given an equivariant CAT(0) metric. This is particularly interesting as there are very few non-trivial examples of proving that a mod…
Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system, let $G$ be a finite solvable group of automorphisms of $(W,S)$ and let $φ$ be a weight function which is invariant under $G$. Let $φ_G$ denote the weight function on $W^G$ obtained by restriction from $φ$. The aim of this paper is to compare the ${\mathbf{a}}$-function, the set of Duflo involutions and the Kazhdan-Lusztig cells associated to $(W,φ)$ and to $(W^G,φ_G)$, provided that Lusztig's Conjectures hold.
This paper studies the rigidity properties of the abstract commensurator of the outer automorphism group of a universal Coxeter group of rank $n$, which is the free product $W_n$ of $n$ copies of $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$. We prove that for $n\geq 5$ the natural map $\mathrm{Out}(W_n) \to \mathrm{Comm}(\mathrm{Out}(W_n))$ is an isomorphism and that every isomorphism between finite index subgroups of $\mathrm{Out}(W_n)$ is given by a conjugation by an element of $\mathrm{Out}(W_n)$.
For a finite Coxeter group $W$ and $w$ an element of $W$ the `excess' of $w$ is defined to be $e(w) = \min\{\ell(x) + \ell(y) - \ell(w) \; | \; w=xy, \; x^2 = y^2 = 1\}$ where $\ell$ is the length function on $W$. Here we investigate the behaviour of $e(w)$, and a related concept reflection excess, when restricted to standard parabolic subgroups of $W$. Also the set of involutions inverting $w$ is studied.
We show that any split extension of a right-angled Coxeter group $W_Γ$ by a generating automorphism of finite order acts faithfully and geometrically on a $\mathrm{CAT}(0)$ metric space.
In this paper we give a classification of classes of involutions on an automorphism group of an octonion algebra over fields of characteristic 2, and describe the classes of their fixed point groups.
Automorphisms of order $2$ are studied in order to understand generalized symmetric spaces. The groups of type $E_6$ we consider here can be realized as both the group of linear maps that leave a certain determinant invariant, and also as the identity component of the automorphism group of a class of structurable algebras known as Brown algebras. We will classify the $k$-involutions of these groups of type $E_6$ using aspects of both descriptions, and give detailed descriptions of representatives over certain fields including algebraically closed fields, $\mathbb{R}$, $\mathbb{F}_p$, and $\mat…
We prove that a finite complex reflection group has a generalized involution model, as defined by Bump and Ginzburg, if and only if each of its irreducible factors is either $G(r,p,n)$ with $\gcd(p,n)=1$; $G(r,p,2)$ with $r/p$ odd; or $G_{23}$, the Coxeter group of type $H_3$. We additionally provide explicit formulas for all automorphisms of $G(r,p,n)$, and construct new Gelfand models for the groups $G(r,p,n)$ with $\gcd(p,n)=1$.
Coxeter groups are a special class of groups generated by involutions. They play important roles in the various areas of mathematics. This survey particularly focuses on how one uses Coxeter groups to construct interesting examples of discrete subgroups of Lie groups.
We show that word hyperbolicity of automorphism groups of graph products $G_Γ$ and of Coxeter groups $W_Γ$ depends strongly on the shape of the defining graph $Γ$. We also characterized those $Aut(G_Γ)$ and $Aut(W_Γ)$ in terms of $Γ$ that are virtually free.
We consider the Cayley graph ${\rm C}(W,S)$ of a Coxeter system $(W,S)$ and describe all maximal $2$-cliques in this graph, i.e. maximal subsets in the vertex set such that the distance between any two distinct elements is equal to $2$. As an application, we show that every automorphism of the half of Cayley graph is uniquely extendable to an automorphism of the Cayley graph if $|S|\ge 5$.
This paper examines a systematic method to construct a pair of (inter-related) root systems for arbitrary Coxeter groups from a class of non-standard geometric representations. This method can be employed to construct generalizations of root systems for a large family of groups generated only by involutions. We then give a characterization of Coxeter groups, among these groups, in terms of such paired root systems. Furthermore, we use this method to construct and study the paired root systems for reflection subgroups of Coxeter groups.
The so-called Tits class, associated to an adjoint absolutely almost simple algebraic group, provides a cohomological obstruction for this group to admit an outer automorphism. If the group has inner type, this obstruction is the only one. In this paper, we prove this is not the case for classical groups of outer type, except for groups of type $^2\mathsf{A}_n$ with $n$ even, or $n=5$. More precisely, we prove a descent theorem for exponent $2$ and degree $6$ algebras with unitary involution, which shows that their automorphism groups have outer automorphisms. In all other relevant classical t…
Let $G,D_{0},D_{1}$ be finite groups such that $D_{0}\trianglelefteq D_{1}$ are groups of automorphisms of $G$ that contain the inner automorphisms of $G$. Assume that $D_{1}/D_{0}$ has a normal $2$-complement and that $D_{1}$ acts fixed-point-freely on the set of $D_{0}$-conjugacy classes of involutions of $G$ (i.e., $C_{D_{1}}(a)D_{0}<D_{1}$ for every involution $a\in G$). We prove that $G$ is solvable. We also construct a nonsolvable finite group that possesses no characteristic conjugacy class of nontrivial cyclic subgroups. This shows that an assumption on the structure of $D_{1}/D_{0}$ a…
Let $G=QD_{8k}~$ be the quasi-dihedral group of order $8n$ and $θ$ be an automorphism of $QD_{8k}$ of finite order. The fixed-point set $H$ of $θ$ is defined as $H_θ=G^θ=\{x\in G \mid θ(x)=x\}$ and generalized symmetric space $Q$ of $θ$ given by $Q_θ=\{g\in G \mid g=xθ(x)^{-1}~\mbox{for some}~x\in G\}.$ The characteristics of the sets $H$ and $Q$ have been calculated. It is shown that for any $H$ and $Q,~~H.Q\neq QD_{8k}.$ the $H$-orbits on $Q$ are obtained under different conditions. Moreover, the formula to find the order of $v$-th root of unity in $\mathbb{Z}_{2k}$ for $QD_{8k}$ has been ca…
Let $G=\Dc_{n}$ be the dicyclic group of order $4n$. Let $φ$ be an automorphism of $G$ of order $k$. We describe $φ$ and the generalized symmetric space $Q$ of $G$ associated with $φ$. When $φ$ is an involution, we describe its fixed point group $H=G^φ$ along with the $H$-orbits and $G$-orbits of $Q$ corresponding to the action of $φ$-twisted conjugation.
The purpose of this article is to shed new light on the combinatorial structure of Kazhdan-Lusztig cells in infinite Coxeter groups $W$. Our main focus is the set $\D$ of distinguished involutions in $W$, which was introduced by Lusztig in one of his first papers on cells in affine Weyl groups. We conjecture that the set $\D$ has a simple recursive structure and can be enumerated algorithmically starting from the distinguished involutions of finite Coxeter groups. Moreover, to each element of $\D$ we assign an explicitly defined set of equivalence relations on $W$ that altogether conjecturally…
