Coxeter group

In mathematics, a Coxeter group, named after H. S. M. Coxeter, is an abstract group that admits a formal description in terms of reflections (or kaleidoscopic mirrors). 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 in 1934 as abstractions of reflection groups , and finite Coxeter groups were classified in 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.
Standard references include and .
Definition.
Formally, a Coxeter group can be defined as a group with the presentation
where formula_2 and formula_3 for formula_4.
The condition formula_5 means no relation of the form formula_6 should be imposed.
The pair formula_7 where formula_8 is a Coxeter group with generators formula_9 is called a Coxeter system. Note that in general formula_10 is "not" uniquely determined by formula_8. For example, the Coxeter groups of type formula_12 and formula_13 are isomorphic but the Coxeter systems are not equivalent (see below for an explanation of this notation).
A number of conclusions can be drawn immediately from the above definition.
Coxeter matrix and Schläfli matrix.
The Coxeter matrix is the formula_32, symmetric matrix with entries formula_33. Indeed, every symmetric matrix with diagonal entries exclusively 1 and nondiagonal entries in the set formula_34 is a Coxeter matrix.
The Coxeter matrix can be conveniently encoded by a Coxeter diagram, as per the following rules.
In particular, two generators commute if and only if they are not connected by an edge. 
Furthermore, if a Coxeter graph has two or more connected components, the associated group is the direct product of the groups associated to the individual components.
Thus the disjoint union of Coxeter graphs yields a direct product of Coxeter groups.
The Coxeter matrix, formula_40, is related to the formula_32 Schläfli matrix formula_42 with entries formula_43, but the elements are modified, being proportional to the dot product of the pairwise generators. The Schläfli matrix is useful because its eigenvalues determine whether the Coxeter group is of "finite type" (all positive), "affine type" (all non-negative, at least one zero), or "indefinite type" (otherwise). The indefinite type is sometimes further subdivided, e.g. into hyperbolic and other Coxeter groups. However, there are multiple non-equivalent definitions for hyperbolic Coxeter groups.
An example.
The graph formula_44 in which vertices 1 through "n" are placed in a row with each vertex connected by an unlabelled edge to its immediate neighbors gives rise to the symmetric group "S""n"+1; the generators correspond to the transpositions (1 2), (2 3), ... , ("n" "n"+1). Two non-consecutive transpositions always commute, while ("k" "k"+1) ("k"+1 "k"+2) gives the 3-cycle ("k" "k"+2 "k"+1). Of course, this only shows that "Sn+1" is a quotient group of the Coxeter group described by the graph, but it is not too difficult to check that equality holds.
Connection with reflection groups.
Coxeter groups are deeply connected with reflection groups. Simply put, Coxeter groups are "abstract" groups (given via a presentation), while reflection groups are "concrete" groups (given as subgroups of linear groups or various generalizations). Coxeter groups grew out of the study of reflection groups — they are an abstraction: a reflection group is a subgroup of a linear group generated by reflections (which have order 2), while a Coxeter group is an abstract group generated by involutions (elements of order 2, abstracting from reflections), and whose relations have a certain form (formula_45, corresponding to hyperplanes meeting at an angle of formula_46, with formula_47 being of order "k" abstracting from a rotation by formula_48).
The abstract group of a reflection group is a Coxeter group, while conversely a reflection group can be seen as a linear representation of a Coxeter group. For "finite" reflection groups, this yields an exact correspondence: every finite Coxeter group admits a faithful representation as a finite reflection group of some Euclidean space. For infinite Coxeter groups, however, a Coxeter group may not admit a representation as a reflection group.
Historically, proved that every reflection group is a Coxeter group (i.e., has a presentation where all relations are of the form formula_49 or formula_45), and indeed this paper introduced the notion of a Coxeter group, while proved that every finite Coxeter group had a representation as a reflection group, and classified finite Coxeter groups.
Finite Coxeter groups.
Classification.
The finite Coxeter groups were classified in , in terms of Coxeter–Dynkin diagrams; they are all represented by reflection groups of finite-dimensional Euclidean spaces.
The finite Coxeter groups consist of three one-parameter families of increasing rank formula_51 one one-parameter family of dimension two, formula_52 and six exceptional groups: formula_53 and formula_54. The product of finitely many Coxeter groups in this list is again a Coxeter group, and all finite Coxeter groups arise in this way.
Weyl groups.
Many, but not all of these, are Weyl groups, and every Weyl group can be realized as a Coxeter group. The Weyl groups are the families formula_55 and formula_56 and the exceptions formula_57 and formula_58 denoted in Weyl group notation as formula_59 The non-Weyl groups are the exceptions formula_60 and formula_61 and the family formula_62 except where this coincides with one of the Weyl groups (namely formula_63 and formula_64).
This can be proven by comparing the restrictions on (undirected) Dynkin diagrams with the restrictions on Coxeter diagrams of finite groups: formally, the Coxeter graph can be obtained from the Dynkin diagram by discarding the direction of the edges, and replacing every double edge with an edge labelled 4 and every triple edge by an edge labelled 6. Also note that every finitely generated Coxeter group is an automatic group. Dynkin diagrams have the additional restriction that the only permitted edge labels are 2, 3, 4, and 6, which yields the above. Geometrically, this corresponds to the crystallographic restriction theorem, and the fact that excluded polytopes do not fill space or tile the plane – for formula_65 the dodecahedron (dually, icosahedron) does not fill space; for formula_61 the 120-cell (dually, 600-cell) does not fill space; for formula_62 a "p"-gon does not tile the plane except for formula_68 or formula_69 (the triangular, square, and hexagonal tilings, respectively).
Note further that the (directed) Dynkin diagrams "Bn" and "Cn" give rise to the same Weyl group (hence Coxeter group), because they differ as "directed" graphs, but agree as "undirected" graphs – direction matters for root systems but not for the Weyl group; this corresponds to the hypercube and cross-polytope being different regular polytopes but having the same symmetry group.
Properties.
Some properties of the finite irreducible Coxeter groups are given in the following table. The order of reducible groups can be computed by the product of their irreducible subgroup orders.
Symmetry groups of regular polytopes.
All symmetry groups of regular polytopes are finite Coxeter groups. Note that dual polytopes have the same symmetry group.
There are three series of regular polytopes in all dimensions. The symmetry group of a regular "n"-simplex is the symmetric group "S""n"+1, also known as the Coxeter group of type "An". The symmetry group of the "n"-cube and its dual, the "n"-cross-polytope, is "Bn", and is known as the hyperoctahedral group.
The exceptional regular polytopes in dimensions two, three, and four, correspond to other Coxeter groups. In two dimensions, the dihedral groups, which are the symmetry groups of regular polygons, form the series "I"2("p"). In three dimensions, the symmetry group of the regular dodecahedron and its dual, the regular icosahedron, is "H"3, known as the full icosahedral group. In four dimensions, there are three special regular polytopes, the 24-cell, the 120-cell, and the 600-cell. The first has symmetry group "F"4, while the other two are dual and have symmetry group "H"4.
The Coxeter groups of type "D""n", "E"6, "E"7, and "E"8 are the symmetry groups of certain semiregular polytopes.
Affine Coxeter groups.
The affine Coxeter groups form a second important series of Coxeter groups. These are not finite themselves, but each contains a normal abelian subgroup such that the corresponding quotient group is finite. In each case, the quotient group is itself a Coxeter group, and the Coxeter graph of the affine Coxeter group is obtained from the Coxeter graph of the quotient group by adding another vertex and one or two additional edges. For example, for "n" ≥ 2, the graph consisting of "n"+1 vertices in a circle is obtained from "An" in this way, and the corresponding Coxeter group is the affine Weyl group of "An" (the affine symmetric group). For "n" = 2, this can be pictured as a subgroup of the symmetry group of the standard tiling of the plane by equilateral triangles.
In general, given a root system, one can construct the associated "Stiefel diagram", consisting of the hyperplanes orthogonal to the roots along with certain translates of these hyperplanes. The affine Coxeter group (or affine Weyl group) is then the group generated by the (affine) reflections about all the hyperplanes in the diagram. The Stiefel diagram divides the plane into infinitely many connected components called "alcoves", and the affine Coxeter group acts freely and transitively on the alcoves, just as the ordinary Weyl group acts freely and transitively on the Weyl chambers. The figure at right illustrates the Stiefel diagram for the formula_70 root system.
Suppose formula_71 is an irreducible root system of rank formula_72 and let formula_73 be a collection of simple roots. Let, also, formula_74 denote the highest root. Then the affine Coxeter group is generated by the ordinary (linear) reflections about the hyperplanes perpendicular to formula_73, together with an affine reflection about a translate of the hyperplane perpendicular to formula_74. The Coxeter graph for the affine Weyl group is the Coxeter–Dynkin diagram for formula_71, together with one additional node associated to formula_74. In this case, one alcove of the Stiefel diagram may be obtained by taking the fundamental Weyl chamber and cutting it by a translate of the hyperplane perpendicular to formula_74.
A list of the affine Coxeter groups follows:
The group symbol subscript is one less than the number of nodes in each case, since each of these groups was obtained by adding a node to a finite group's graph.
Hyperbolic Coxeter groups.
There are infinitely many hyperbolic Coxeter groups describing reflection groups in hyperbolic space, notably including the hyperbolic triangle groups.
Partial orders.
A choice of reflection generators gives rise to a length function "ℓ" on a Coxeter group, namely the minimum number of uses of generators required to express a group element; this is precisely the length in the word metric in the Cayley graph. An expression for "v" using "ℓ"("v") generators is a "reduced word". For example, the permutation (13) in "S"3 has two reduced words, (12)(23)(12) and (23)(12)(23). The function formula_80 defines a map formula_81 generalizing the sign map for the symmetric group.
Using reduced words one may define three partial orders on the Coxeter group, the (right) weak order, the absolute order and the Bruhat order (named for François Bruhat). An element "v" exceeds an element "u" in the Bruhat order if some (or equivalently, any) reduced word for "v" contains a reduced word for "u" as a substring, where some letters (in any position) are dropped. In the weak order, "v" ≥ "u" if some reduced word for "v" contains a reduced word for "u" as an initial segment. Indeed, the word length makes this into a graded poset. The Hasse diagrams corresponding to these orders are objects of study, and are related to the Cayley graph determined by the generators. The absolute order is defined analogously to the weak order, but with generating set/alphabet consisting of all conjugates of the Coxeter generators.
For example, the permutation (1 2 3) in "S"3 has only one reduced word, (12)(23), so covers (12) and (23) in the Bruhat order but only covers (12) in the weak order.
Homology.
Since a Coxeter group formula_8 is generated by finitely many elements of order 2, its abelianization is an elementary abelian 2-group, i.e., it is isomorphic to the direct sum of several copies of the cyclic group formula_83. This may be restated in terms of the first homology group of formula_8.
The Schur multiplier formula_85, equal to the second homology group of formula_8, was computed in for finite reflection groups and in for affine reflection groups, with a more unified account given in . In all cases, the Schur multiplier is also an elementary abelian 2-group. For each infinite family formula_87 of finite or affine Weyl groups, the rank of formula_88 stabilizes as formula_89 goes to infinity.