Questions tagged [coxeter-groups]

For questions about Coxeter groups, an abstract group that admits a formal description in terms of reflections.

In mathematics, a Coxeter group, named after H.S.M. Coxeter, is an abstract group that admits a formal description in terms of reflections. Indeed, the finite Coxeter groups are precisely the finite Euclidean reflection groups; the symmetry groups of regular polyhedra are an example. However, not all Coxeter groups are finite, and not all can be described in terms of symmetries and Euclidean reflections. Coxeter groups were introduced (Coxeter 1934) as abstractions of reflection groups, and finite Coxeter groups were classified in 1935 (Coxeter 1935).

Coxeter groups find applications in many areas of mathematics. Examples of finite Coxeter groups include the symmetry groups of regular polytopes, and the Weyl groups of simple Lie algebras. Examples of infinite Coxeter groups include the triangle groups corresponding to regular tessellations of the Euclidean plane and the hyperbolic plane, and the Weyl groups of infinite-dimensional Kac–Moody algebras.

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What is the Coxeter diagram for?

I understand that Coxeter diagrams are supposed to communicate something about the structure of symmetry groups of polyhedra, but I am baffled about what that something is, or why the Coxeter diagram is clearer, simpler, or more useful than a…
MJD
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Finite/Infinite Coxeter Groups

In the same contest as this we got the following problem: We are given a language with only three letters letters $A,B,C$. Two words are equivalent if they can be transformed from one another using transformations of consecutive letters in a word…
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Is every finite group of isometries a subgroup of a finite reflection group?

Is every finite group of isometries in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space a subgroup of a finite group generated by reflections? By "reflection" I mean reflection in a hyperplane: the isometry fixing a hyperplane and moving every other point along the…
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What sort of groups are generated by a single conjugacy class?

To clarify, I am not looking for a classification but rather for well-researched examples of families of (finitely generated) groups generated by a single conjugacy class. A collection of examples, some from the answers and comments, is as…
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Slick proof that Coxeter groups $H_3$ and $H_4$ are finite?

I'm planning to teach a course on reflection/Coxeter groups next Fall, and have started outlining the first days, which will presumably be the classification of finite reflection groups. Here is an issue I've run into. At the end of the…
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Description of flipping tableau for inversions in reduced decompositions of permutations

Short version: Is there a graphical description of the possible orders in which inversions can appear in a reduced decomposition of a permutation? Something akin to the definition of standard Young tableaux. Inversions of longest permutation…
Jack Schmidt
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Weyl group of a non-symmetrizable Generalized Cartan Matrix

Let $A$ be a generalized Cartan matrix on the index set $I$. Define the Weyl group of $A$ as the Coxeter group on the basis $I$ with $m(i,j)=2,3,4,6,\infty$ according to whether $A_{ij} A_{ji}$ is $0,1,2,3$ or bigger. It acts on ${\mathbb Z}[I]$ by…
Hanno
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How can one recognize when two Coxeter diagrams represent the same uniform polytope?

If we enumerate uniform polytopes generated by Coxeter diagrams, we find many cases where two apparently distinct Coxeter diagrams yield the same uniform polytope. A small handful of examples: the rectified tetrahedron is the same as the…
Don Hatch
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What is a Coxeter Group?

I've recently started investigating abstract algebra and have now stumbled upon "Coxeter Groups", which are a mystery to me. I've read that Coxeter Groups have something to do with reflections (in which way is entirely unclear) are related to…
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Proving that this relation implies another relation on the Coxeter group [4,3,3,4].

I have a group with five generators $\sigma_i$, and the following relations: \begin{split} \sigma_i^2 = \varepsilon \\ |i-j| \neq 1 \implies (\sigma_i\sigma_j)^2 = \varepsilon \\ (\sigma_0\sigma_1)^4 = \varepsilon \\ (\sigma_1\sigma_2)^3 =…
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Condition implying $N(H)/H$ a Coxeter group?

I'm interested in which finite groups can arise as $$ N(H)/H $$ for $ H $ a connected subgroup of a compact connected simple Lie group $ G $. One obvious family of examples is take $ H $ to be the maximal torus then $ N(H)/H $ is the Weyl group of $…
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How to count polyhedral rotations?

Suppose I have a regular polytope $P$ which I'm representing as a graph $G_P$ with vertices and edges. I can already put this data into a computer program to find a list of symmetries of $P$---they're just the graph isomorphisms from $G_P$ to…
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Irreducible Representations of Finite Coxeter Groups

The Coxeter group is defined as $$S = \langle s_i : s_i^2 = (s_i s_j)^{m_{ij}} = 1 \rangle $$ Does it have an irreducible representation of dimension >2 for $S$ finite? Is there a reference on this subject i.e. to find irreps of finite $S$? For the…
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Reference request: Inversions and $\sum_{w\in W}q^{\ell(w)}$ for arbitrary Coxeter groups

For the symmetric group $S_n$, an inversion of a permutation $\pi∈S_n$ is a pair $1\leq i\pi(j)$. It is known that the length $\ell(\pi)$ of a permutation (i.e. the least number of simple transpositions needed to express…
Bubaya
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Relation between reflection group and coxeter group

Reflection group is defined see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection_group. An abstract Coxter group is defined to have generators $s_1$, $s_2$, ..., $s_n$ and relations $s^2_i=e$, $(s_is_j)^{m_{ij}}=e$ for some $2\leq m_{ij}\leq \infty$. I…
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