The principal objects studied in this note are Coxeter groups $W$ that are neither finite nor affine. A well known result of de la Harpe asserts that such groups have exponential growth. We consider quotients of $W$ by its parabolic subgroups and by a certain class of reflection subgroups. We show that these quotients have exponential growth as well. To achieve this, we use a theorem of Dyer to construct a reflection subgroup of $W$ that is isomorphic to the universal Coxeter group on three generators. The results are all proved under the restriction that the Coxeter diagram of $W$ is simply laced, and some remarks made on how this restriction may be relaxed.
The aim of this note is to prove that the parabolic closure of any subset of a Coxeter group is a parabolic subgroup. To obtain that, several technical lemmas on the root system of a parabolic subgroup are established.
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.
The conjugacy classes of so-called special involutions parameterize the constituents of the action of a finite Coxeter group on the cohomology of the complement of its complexified hyperplane arrangement. In this note we give a short intrinsic characterisation of special involutions in terms of so-called bulky parabolic subgroups.
In this paper, we investigate boundaries of parabolic subgroups of Coxeter groups. Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system and let $T$ be a subset of $S$ such that the parabolic subgroup $W_T$ is infinite. Then we show that if a certain set is quasi-dense in $W$, then $W \partialΣ(W_T,T)$ is dense in the boundary $\partialΣ(W,S)$ of the Coxeter system $(W,S)$, where $\partialΣ(W_T,T)$ is the boundary of $(W_T,T)$.
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 discuss one construction of nonstandard subgroups in the category of Coxeter groups. Two formulae for the growth series of such a subgroups are given. As an application we construct a flag simple convex polytope, whose f-polynomial has non-real roots.
We improve a bound of Borcherds on the virtual cohomological dimension of the non-reflection part of the normalizer of a parabolic subgroup of a Coxeter group. Our bound is in terms of the types of the components of the corresponding Coxeter subdiagram rather than the number of nodes. A consequence is an extension of Brink's result that the non-reflection part of a reflection centralizer is free. Namely, the non-reflection part of the normalizer of parabolic subgroup of type D5 or Aodd is either free or has a free subgroup of index 2.
Despite the significance of the notion of parabolic closures in Coxeter groups of finite ranks, the parabolic closure is not guaranteed to exist as a parabolic subgroup in a general case. In this paper, first we give a concrete example to clarify that the parabolic closure of even an irreducible reflection subgroup of countable rank does not necessarily exist as a parabolic subgroup. Then we propose a generalized notion of "locally parabolic closure" by introducing a notion of "locally parabolic subgroups", which involves parabolic ones as a special case, and prove that the locally parabolic c…
Let $W$ be an arbitrary Coxeter group, possibly of infinite rank. We describe a decomposition of the centralizer $Z_W(W_I)$ of an arbitrary parabolic subgroup $W_I$ into the center of $W_I$, a Coxeter group and a subgroup defined by a 2-cell complex. Only information about finite parabolic subgroups is required in an explicit computation. Moreover, by using our description of $Z_W(W_I)$, we reveal a further strong property of the action of the third factor on the second factor, in particular on the finite irreducible components of the second factor.
In this paper, we show that the center of every Coxeter group is finite and isomorphic to $(\Z_2)^n$ for some $n\ge 0$. Moreover, for a Coxeter system $(W,S)$, we prove that $Z(W)=Z(W_{S\setminus\tilde{S}})$ and $Z(W_{\tilde{S}})=1$, where $Z(W)$ is the center of the Coxeter group $W$ and $\tilde{S}$ is the subset of $S$ such that the parabolic subgroup $W_{\tilde{S}}$ is the {\it essential parabolic subgroup} of $(W,S)$ (i.e.\ $W_{\tilde{S}}$ is the minimum parabolic subgroup of finite index in $(W,S)$). The finiteness of the center of a Coxeter group implies that a splitting theorem holds fo…
We introduce the notion of two-dimensional Coxeter system and show that parabolic subgroups of GL_n(F_2) can be described by an appropriate two-dimensional Coxeter system.
It has been known that the centralizer $Z_W(W_I)$ of a parabolic subgroup $W_I$ of a Coxeter group $W$ is a split extension of a naturally defined reflection subgroup by a subgroup defined by a 2-cell complex $\mathcal{Y}$. In this paper, we study the structure of $Z_W(W_I)$ further and show that, if $I$ has no irreducible components of type $A_n$ with $2 \leq n < \infty$, then every element of finite irreducible components of the inner factor is fixed by a natural action of the fundamental group of $\mathcal{Y}$. This property has an application to the isomorphism problem in Coxeter groups.
We consider a cocompact discrete reflection group $W$ of a CAT(0) space $X$. Then $W$ becomes a Coxeter group. In this paper, we study an analogy between the Davis-Moussong complex $Σ(W,S)$ and the CAT(0) space $X$, and show several analogous results about the limit set of a parabolic subgroup of the Coxeter group $W$.
The aim of this note is to show that the cycle decomposition of elements of the symmetric group admits a quite natural formulation in the framework of dual Coxeter theory, yielding a generalization of it to the family of so-called parabolic quasi-Coxeter elements of Coxeter groups (in the symmetric group every element is a parabolic quasi-Coxeter element). We show that such an element admits an analogue of the cycle decomposition. Elements which are not in this family still admit a generalized cycle decomposition, but it is not unique in general.
We show that for a parabolic quasi-Coxeter element in an affine Coxeter group the Hurwitz action on its set of reduced factorizations into a product of reflections is transitive. We call an element of the Coxeter group parabolic quasi-Coxeter element if it has a reduced factorization into a product of reflections that generate a parabolic subgroup.
Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system, and let $X$ be a subset of $S$. The subgroup of $W$ generated by $X$ is denoted by $W_X$ and is called a parabolic subgroup. We give the precise definition of the commensurator of a subgroup in a group. In particular, the commensurator of $W_X$ in $W$ is the subgroup of $w$ in $W$ such that $wW_Xw^{-1}\cap W_X$ has finite index in both $W_X$ and $wW_Xw^{-1}$. The subgroup $W_X$ can be decomposed in the form $W_X = W_{X^0} \cdot W_{X^\infty} \simeq W_{X^0} \times W_{X^\infty}$ where $W_{X^0}$ is finite and all the irreducible components of $W_{X^\infty}$" > are …
One can observe that Coxeter groups and right-angled Artin groups share the same solution to the word problem. On the other hand, in his study of reflection subgroups of Coxeter groups Dyer introduces a family of groups, which we call Dyer groups, which contains both, Coxeter groups and right-angled Artin groups. We show that all Dyer groups have this solution to the word problem, we show that a group which admits such a solution belongs to a little more general family of groups that we call quasi-Dyer groups, and we show that this inclusion is strict. Then we show several results on parabolic…
We show that right-angled Coxeter groups are relatively hyperbolic in the sense defined by Farb, relative to a natural collection of rank-2 parabolic subgroups.
Let $X$ be the surface $\T\times\T$ where $\T$ is the complex torus. This paper is the third in a series, studying the fundamental group of the Galois cover of $X$ \wrt a generic projection onto $\C¶^2$. Van Kampen Theorem gives a presentation of the fundamental group of the complement of the branch curve, with 54 generators and more than 2000 relations. Here we introduce a certain natural quotient (obtained by identifying pairs of generators), prove it is a quotient of a Coxeter group related to the degeneration of $X$, and show that this quotient is virtually nilpotent.
In this note, we provide a short and self-contained proof that the braid group on n strands acts transitively on the set of reduced factorizations of a Coxeter element in a Coxeter group of finite rank n into products of reflections. We moreover use the same argument to also show that all factorizations of an element in a parabolic subgroup of W lie as well in this parabolic subgroup.
In this article we calculate the minimal faithful permutation degree for all of the irreducible Coxeter groups. We also exhibit new examples of finite groups that possess a quotient whose minimal degree is strictly greater than that of the group.
In which it is proven that, for each parabolic quasi-Coxeter element in a finite real reflection group, the orbits of the Hurwitz action on its reflection factorizations are distinguished by the two obvious invariants
In a recent paper, Barot and Marsh presented an explicit construction of presentation of a finite Weyl group by any seed of corresponding cluster algebra, i.e. by any diagram mutation-equivalent to an orientation of a Dynkin diagram with given Weyl group. Extending their construction to the affine case, we obtain presentations for all affine Coxeter groups. Furthermore, we generalize the construction to the settings of diagrams arising from unpunctured triangulated surfaces and orbifolds, which leads to presentations of corresponding groups as quotients of numerous distinct Coxeter groups.
A Coxeter group acts properly and cocompactly by isometries on the Davis complex for the group; we call the quotient of the Davis complex under this action the Davis orbicomplex for the group. We prove the set of finite covers of the Davis orbicomplexes for the set of one-ended Coxeter groups is not topologically rigid. We exhibit a quotient of a Davis complex by a one-ended right-angled Coxeter group which has two finite covers that are homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic. We discuss consequences for the abstract commensurability classification of Coxeter groups.
Let $W$ be a right-angled Coxeter group corresponding to a finite non-discrete graph $\mathcal{G}$ with at least $3$ vertices. Our main theorem says that $\mathcal{G}^c$ is connected if and only if for any infinite index quasiconvex subgroup $H$ of $W$ and any finite subset $\{ γ_1, \ldots , γ_n \} \subset W \setminus H$ there is a surjection $f$ from $W$ to a finite alternating group such that $f (γ_i) \notin f (H)$. A corollary is that a right-angled Artin group splits as a direct product of cyclic groups and groups with many alternating quotients in the above sense. Similarly, finitely gene…
Let G be a complete Kac-Moody group over a finite field. It is known that G possesses a BN-pair structure, all of whose parabolic subgroups are open in G. We show that, conversely, every open subgroup of G is contained with finite index in some parabolic subgroup; moreover there are only finitely many such parabolic subgroups. The proof uses some new results on parabolic closures in Coxeter groups. In particular, we give conditions ensuring that the parabolic closure of the product of two elements in a Coxeter group contains the respective parabolic closures of those elements.
In a finite Coxeter group $W$ and with two given conjugacy classes of parabolic subgroups $[X]$ and $[Y]$, we count those parabolic subgroups of $W$ in $[Y]$ that are full support, while simultaneously being simple extensions (i.e., extensions by a single reflection) of some standard parabolic subgroup of $W$ in $[X]$. The enumeration is given by a product formula that depends only on the two parabolic types. Our derivation is case-free and combines a geometric interpretation of the "full support" property with a double counting argument involving Crapo's beta invariant. As a corollary, this a…
We investigate the so-called dual Matsumoto property or Hurwitz action in finite, affine and arbitrary Coxeter groups. In particular, we want to investigate how to reduce reflection factorizations and how two reflection factorizations of the same element are related to each other. We are motivated by the dual approach to Coxeter groups proposed by Bessis and the question whether there is an anlogue of the well known Matsumoto property for reflection factorizations. Our aim is a substantial understanding of the Hurwitz action. We therefore reprove uniformly results of Lewis and Reiner as well a…
The normalizer $N_W(W_J)$ of a standard parabolic subgroup $W_J$ of a finite Coxeter group $W$ splits over the parabolic subgroup with complement $N_J$ consisting of certain minimal length coset representatives of $W_J$ in $W$. In this note we show that (with the exception of a small number of cases arising from a situation in Coxeter groups of type $D_n$) the centralizer $C_W(w)$ of an element $w \in W$ is in a similar way a semidirect product of the centralizer of $w$ in a suitable small parabolic subgroup $W_J$ with complement isomorphic to the normalizer complement $N_J$.
We provide a necessary and sufficient condition on an element of a finite Coxeter group to ensure the transitivity of the Hurwitz action on its set of reduced decompositions into products of reflections. We show that this action is transitive if and only if the element is a parabolic quasi-Coxeter element, that is, if and only if it has a reduced decomposition into a product of reflections that generate a parabolic subgroup.
Oshima's Lemma describes the orbits of parabolic subgroups of irreducible finite Weyl groups on crystallographic root systems. This note generalises that result to all root systems of finite Coxeter groups, and provides a self contained proof, independent of the representation theory of semisimple complex Lie algebras.
Let $(W, S)$ be a Coxeter system. We give necessary and sufficient conditions on the Coxeter diagram of $(W, S)$ for $W$ to be relatively hyperbolic with respect to a collection of finitely generated subgroups. The peripheral subgroups are necessarily parabolic subgroups (in the sense of Coxeter group theory). As an application, we present a criterion for the maximal flats of the Davis complex of $(W,S)$ to be isolated. If this is the case, then the maximal affine sub-buildings of any building of type $(W,S)$ are isolated.
Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system of finite rank and let $J,K\subset S$. We study the rationality of the Poincaré series of the set of representatives of minimal length of $(W_J,W_K)$-double cosets of $W$: we conclude that it depends mostly on the rationality of the Poincaré series of the normalizers of finite parabolic subgroups of $W$. For affine Weyl groups, we prove that all these series are rational and we give some explicit examples.
We show that certain right-angled Coxeter groups have finite index subgroups that quotient to $\mathbb Z$ with finitely generated kernels. The proof uses Bestvina-Brady Morse theory facilitated by combinatorial arguments. We describe a variety of examples where the plan succeeds or fails. Among the successful examples are the right-angled reflection groups in $\mathbb H^4$ with fundamental domain the $120$-cell or the $24$-cell.
We investigate a novel diagrammatic approach to examining strict actions of a Coxeter group or a braid group on a category. This diagrammatic language, which was developed in a series of papers by Elias, Khovanov and Williamson, provides new tools and methods to attack many problems of current interest in representation theory. In our research we considered a particular problem which arises in this context. To a Coxeter group $W$ one can associate a real hyperplane arrangement, and can consider the complement of these hyperplanes in the complexification $Y_W$. The celebrated $K(π,1)$ conjectur…
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.
Let $W$ be a Coxeter group and $r\in W$ a reflection. If the group of order 2 generated by $r$ is the intersection of all the maximal finite subgroups of $W$ that contain it, then any isomorphism from $W$ to a Coxeter group $W'$ must take $r$ to a reflection in $W'$. The aim of this paper is to show how to determine, by inspection of the Coxeter graph, the intersection of the maximal finite sugroups containing $r$. In particular we show that the condition above is satisfied whenever $W$ is infinite and irreducible, and has the property that all rank two parabolic subgroups are finite. So in th…
We develop combinatorics of parabolic double cosets in finite Coxeter groups as a follow-up of recent articles by Billey-Konvalinka-Petersen-Slofstra-Tenner and Petersen. (1) We construct a double coset system as a generalization of a two-sided analogue of a Coxeter complex and present its order structure with its local dimension function on certain connected components. As applications of double cosets to Bruhat graphs, we also prove: (2) every parabolic double coset is regular, (3) invariance of degree on Bruhat graph on lower intervals as an analogy of the one for Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial…
The main result of this paper describes the normalizer of a finite parabolic subgroup of a (possibly infinite) Coxeter group. We use this to compute the automorphism groups of some Lorentzian lattices and K3 surfaces.
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 study Coxeter groups from which there is a natural map onto a symmetric group. Such groups have natural quotient groups related to presentations of the symmetric group on an arbitrary set $T$ of transpositions. These quotients, denoted here by C_Y(T), are a special type of the generalized Coxeter groups defined in \cite{CST}, and also arise in the computation of certain invariants of surfaces. We use a surprising action of $S_n$ on the kernel of the surjection $C_Y(T) \ra S_n$ to show that this kernel embeds in the direct product of $n$ copies of the free group $π_1(T)$ (with the exception …
The reflection length of an element of a Coxeter group is the minimal number of conjugates of the standard generators whose product is equal to that element. In this paper we prove the conjecture of McCammond and Petersen that reflection length is unbounded in any non-affine Coxeter group. Among the tools used, the construction of word-hyperbolic quotients of all minimal non-affine Coxeter groups might be of independent interest.
It is well known that the normaliser of a parabolic subgroup of a finite Coxeter group is the semidirect product of the parabolic subgroup by the stabiliser of a set of simple roots. We show that a similar result holds for all finite unitary reflection groups: namely, the normaliser of a parabolic subgroup is a semidirect product and in many, but not all, cases the complement can be obtained as the stabiliser of a set of roots. In addition we record when the complement acts as a reflection group on the space of fixed points of the parabolic subgroup.
In this paper, we prove that all finitely generated malnormal subgroups of one-ended right-angled Coxeter groups are strongly quasiconvex and they are in particular quasiconvex when the ambient groups are hyperbolic. The key idea is to prove all infinite proper malnormal subgroups of one-ended right-angled Coxeter groups are join-free and then prove the strong quasiconvexity and the virtual freeness of these subgroups. We also study the subgroup divergence of join-free subgroups in right-angled Coxeter groups and compare them with the analogous subgroups in right-angled Artin groups. We charac…
We provide a complete description of the presentations of the interval groups related to quasi-Coxeter elements in finite Coxeter groups. In the simply laced cases, we show that each interval group is the quotient of the Artin group associated with the corresponding Carter diagram by the normal closure of a set of twisted cycle commutators, one for each 4-cycle of the diagram. Our techniques also reprove an analogous result for the Artin groups of finite Coxeter groups, which are interval groups corresponding to Coxeter elements. We also analyse the situation in the non-simply laced cases, whe…
This paper provides some evidence for conjectural relations between extensions of (right) weak order on Coxeter groups, closure operators on root systems, and Bruhat order. The conjecture focused upon here refines an earlier question as to whether the set of initial sections of reflection orders, ordered by inclusion, forms a complete lattice. Meet and join in weak order are described in terms of a suitable closure operator. Galois connections are defined from the power set of W to itself, under which maximal subgroups of certain groupoids correspond to certain complete meet subsemilattices of…
In this article we provide further evidence for the monstrous proposal of Daniel Allcock, by giving a plausible but still conjectural explanation for the deflation relation in the Coxeter group quotient of the orbifold fundamental group.
