Rigid reflections and Kac-Moody algebras

Given any Coxeter group, we define rigid reflections and rigid roots using non-self-intersecting curves on a Riemann surface with labeled curves. When the Coxeter group arises from an acyclic quiver, they are related to the rigid representations of the quiver. For a family of rank 3 Coxeter groups, we show that there is a surjective map from the set of reduced positive roots of a rank 2 Kac-Moody algebra onto the set of rigid reflections. We conjecture that this map is bijective.     

Homotopy type of the boolean complex of a Coxeter system

In any Coxeter group, the set of elements whose principal order ideals are boolean forms a simplicial poset under the Bruhat order. This simplicial poset defines a cell complex, called the boolean complex. In this paper it is shown that, for any Coxeter system of rank n, the boolean complex is homotopy equivalent to a wedge of (n−1)-dimensional spheres. The number of such spheres can be computed recursively from the unlabeled Coxeter graph, and defines a new graph invariant called the boolean number. Specific calculations of the boolean number are given for all finite and affine irreducible Coxeter systems, as well as for systems with graphs that are disconnected, complete, or stars. One implication of these results is that the boolean complex is contractible if and only if a generator of the Coxeter system is in the center of the group.     

On quotients of Coxeter groups under the weak order

We consider quotients of finitely generated Coxeter groups under the weak order. Björner and Wachs proved that every such quotient is a meet semi-lattice, and in the finite case is a lattice [Björner and Wachs, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 308 (1988) 1–37]. Our result is that the quotient of an affine Weyl group by the corresponding finite Weyl group is a lattice, and that up to isomorphism, these are the only quotients of infinite Coxeter groups that are lattices. In this paper, we restrict our attention to the non-affine case; the affine case appears in [Waugh, Order 16 (1999) 77–87]. We reduce to the hyperbolic case by an argument using induced subgraphs of Coxeter graphs. Within each quotient, we produce a set of elements with no common upper bound, generated by a Maple program. The number of cases is reduced because the sets satisfy the following conjecture: if a set of elements does not have an upper bound in a particular Coxeter group, then it does not have an upper bound in any Coxeter group whose graph can be obtained from the graph of the original group by increasing edge weights.     

Hyperbolic configurations of roots and Hecke algebras

This paper deals with infinite Coxeter groups. We use geometric techniques to prove two main results. One is of Lie-theoretic nature; it shows the existence of many hyperbolic configurations of three pairwise disjoint roots in a given Coxeter complex, provided it is not an Euclidean tiling. The other is both of algebraic and measure-theoretic nature since it deals with Hecke algebras; it shows that for automorphism groups of buildings, convolution algebras of bi-invariant functions are never commutative, provided the building is not Euclidean. Proofs are of geometric nature: the main idea is to exhibit and use enough trees of valency ?3 inside a non-affine Coxeter complex.     

Quasi-Minuscule Quotients and Reduced Words for Reflections

We study the reduced expressions for reflections in Coxeter groups, with particular emphasis on finite Weyl groups. For example, the number of reduced expressions for any reflection can be expressed as the sum of the squares of the number of reduced expressions for certain elements naturally associated to the reflection. In the case of the longest reflection in a Weyl group, we use a theorem of Dale Peterson to provide an explicit formula for the number of reduced expressions. We also show that the reduced expressions for any Weyl group reflection are in bijection with the linear extensions of a natural partial ordering of a subset of the positive roots or co-roots.     

The Lappo-Danilevskii method and trivial intersections of radicals in lower central series terms for certain fundamental groups

In this paper, it is proved that the intersection of the radicals of nilpotent residues for the generalized pure braid group corresponding to an irreducible finite Coxeter group or an irreducible imprimitive finite complex reflection group is always trivial. The proof uses the solvability of the Riemann—Hilbert problem for analytic families of faithful linear representations by the Lappo-Danilevskii method. Generalized Burau representations are defined for the generalized braid groups corresponding to finite complex reflection groups whose Dynkin—Cohen graphs are trees. The Fuchsian connections for which the monodromy representations are equivalent to the restrictions of generalized Burau representations to pure braid groups are described. The question about the faithfulness of generalized Burau representations and their restrictions to pure braid groups is posed.     

Note on a Theorem of Eng

A theorem of O. Eng on the Poincare polynomial of parabolic quotients of finite Coxeter groups evaluated at -1 is given a case-free geometric proof for Weyl groups.     

Finite index subgroups of graph products

We prove that every quasiconvex subgroup of a right-angled Coxeter group is an intersection of finite index subgroups. From this we deduce similar separability results for other types of groups, including graph products of finite groups and right-angled Artin groups.      

Die chromatischen Polynome unterringfreier Graphen

Let G be a finite undirected graph without loops and multiple edges. A graph is called “unterringfrei”, if there is no induced subgraph being a cycle of length?4. This note shows that the chromatic polynomial of such a graph does only have positive integers as its roots. Conversely all polynomials with only positive integral roots are the chromatic polynomials of such graphs under the slight restriction that M(G;α)=0 implies that M(G;β)=0 for α>β?0.     

A geometric characterization of Coxeter matroids

Coxeter matroids, introduced by Gelfand and Serganova, are combinatorial structures associated with any finite Coxeter group and its parabolic subgroup they include ordinary matroids as a specia case. A basic result in the subject is a geometric characterization of Coxeter matroids first stated by Gelfand and Serganova. This paper presents a self-contained, simple proof of a more general version of this geometric characterization.     

Chordal Coxeter groups

A solution of the isomorphism problem is presented for the class of Coxeter groups W that have a finite set of Coxeter generators S such that the underlying graph of the presentation diagram of the system (W,S) has the property that every cycle of length at least four has a chord. As an application, we construct counterexamples to two conjectures concerning the isomorphism problem for Coxeter groups.      

A Hecke Algebra Quotient and Some Combinatorial Applications

Let (W, S) be a Coxeter group associated to a Coxeter graph which has no multiple bonds. Let H be the corresponding Hecke Algebra. We define a certain quotient \-H of H and show that it has a basis parametrized by a certain subset W _cof the Coxeter group W. Specifically, W _cconsists of those elements of W all of whose reduced expressions avoid substrings of the form sts where s and t are noncommuting generators in S. We determine which Coxeter groups have finite W _cand compute the cardinality of W _cwhen W is a Weyl group. Finally, we give a combinatorial application (which is related to the number of reduced expressions for w W _cof an exponential formula of Lusztig which utilizes a specialization of a subalgebra of \-H.     

Coxeter complexes and graph-associahedra

Given a graph Γ, we construct a simple, convex polytope, dubbed graph-associahedra, whose face poset is based on the connected subgraphs of Γ. This provides a natural generalization of the Stasheff associahedron and the Bott-Taubes cyclohedron. Moreover, we show that for any simplicial Coxeter system, the minimal blow-ups of its associated Coxeter complex has a tiling by graph-associahedra. The geometric and combinatorial properties of the complex as well as of the polyhedra are given. These spaces are natural generalizations of the Deligne-Knudsen-Mumford compactification of the real moduli space of curves.     

Gaussian Groups and Garside Groups, Two Generalisations of Artin Groups

It is known that a number of algebraic properties of the braidgroups extend to arbitrary finite Coxeter-type Artin groups.Here we show how to extend the results to more general groupsthat we call Garside groups. Define a Gaussian monoid to be a finitely generated cancellativemonoid where the expressions of a given element have boundedlengths, and where left and right lowest common multiples exist.A Garside monoid is a Gaussian monoid in which the left andright lowest common multiples satisfy an additional symmetrycondition. A Gaussian group is the group of fractions of a Gaussianmonoid, and a Garside group is the group of fractions of a Garsidemonoid. Braid groups and, more generally, finite Coxeter-typeArtin groups are Garside groups. We determine algorithmic criteriain terms of presentations for recognizing Gaussian and Garsidemonoids and groups, and exhibit infinite families of such groups.We describe simple algorithms that solve the word problem ina Gaussian group, show that these algorithms have a quadraticcomplexity if the group is a Garside group, and prove that Garsidegroups have quadratic isoperimetric inequalities. We constructnormal forms for Gaussian groups, and prove that, in the caseof a Garside group, the language of normal forms is regular,symmetric, and geodesic, has the 5-fellow traveller property,and has the uniqueness property. This shows in particular thatGarside groups are geodesically fully biautomatic. Finally,we consider an automorphism of a finite Coxeter-type Artin groupderived from an automorphism of its defining Coxeter graph,and prove that the subgroup of elements fixed by this automorphismis also a finite Coxeter-type Artin group that can be explicitlydetermined. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: primary20F05, 20F36; secondary 20B40, 20M05.     

Finite groups with a five-component prime graph

Some classification is obtained for the finite groups whose prime graph has five connected components. In particular, we show that such a group is simple. Some related results are stated about representations of simple groups.     

An inductive approach to Coxeter arrangements and Solomon’s descent algebra

In our recent paper (Douglass et al. (2011)), we claimed that both the group algebra of a finite Coxeter group W as well as the Orlik–Solomon algebra of W can be decomposed into a sum of induced one-dimensional representations of centralizers, one for each conjugacy class of elements of W, and gave a uniform proof of this claim for symmetric groups. In this note, we outline an inductive approach to our conjecture. As an application of this method, we prove the inductive version of the conjecture for finite Coxeter groups of rank up to 2.     

REPRESENTATIONS OF AFFINE HECKEALGE BRAS OF TYPE G2

Let k be a field and q a nonzero element in k such that the square roots of q are in k. We use Hq to denote an affne Hecke algebra over k of type G2 with parameter q. The purpose of this paper is to study representations of Hq by using based rings of two-sided cells of an affne Weyl group W of type G2. We shall give the classification of irreducible representations of Hq. We also remark that a calculation in [11] actually shows that Theorem 2 in [1] needs a modification, a fact is known to Grojnowski and Tanisaki long time ago. In this paper we also show an interesting relation between Hq and an Hecke algebra corresponding to a certain Coxeter group. Apparently the idea in this paper works for all affne Weyl groups, but that is the theme of another paper.     

Infinitesimal Hecke algebras

In this Note, we define infinitesimal analogues of the Iwahori–Hecke algebras associated with finite Coxeter groups. These are reductive Lie algebras for which we announce several decomposition results. These decompositions yield irreducibility results for representations of the corresponding (pure) generalized braid groups deduced from Hecke algebra representations through tensor constructions. To cite this article: I. Marin, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 337 (2003).     

Indecomposable representations for real roots of a wild quiver

For a given quiver and dimension vector, Kac has shown that there is exactly one indecomposable representation up to isomorphism if and only if this dimension vector is a positive real root. However, it is not clear how to compute these indecomposable representations in an explicit and minimal way, and the properties of these representations are mostly unknown. In this note we study representations of a particular wild quiver. We define operations which act on representations of this quiver, and using these operations we construct indecomposable representations for positive real roots, compute their endomorphism rings and show that these representations are tree representations. The operations correspond to the fundamental reflections in the Weyl group of the quiver. Our results are independent of the characteristic of the field.