Coxeter complex Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
The Coxeter complex of a Coxeter system is the abstract simplicial complex whose faces are the cosets of proper standard parabolic subgroups, ordered by reverse inclusion. Chambers correspond to elements ; two chambers sharing a panel of type are and . The face has type and dimension when is finite.
For a finite Coxeter group, the Geometric representation of a Coxeter group is a real reflection action with positive-definite Coxeter Gram matrix. Its reflecting hyperplanes cut the unit sphere into the chambers of this simplicial complex. For with its two simple transpositions, the complex is a circle subdivided into six edges. For an infinite Coxeter group, the geometric chamber construction instead uses the Tits cone; a decomposition of the entire unit sphere is not generally available. The Davis complex uses spherical standard parabolic subgroups to give a different, contractible complex.
Coxeter graph Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The Coxeter graph has vertex set , joins and when , and labels the edge by when . A Coxeter system is irreducible exactly when this graph is connected.
Coxeter group Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A Coxeter group is a group with a presentation
where and for . The pair consisting of and its distinguished generating reflections is a Coxeter system.
Coxeter matrix Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
The Coxeter matrix of a Coxeter system is the symmetric matrix whose entry is the order of .
Geometric representation of a Coxeter group Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
For a finite-rank Coxeter system, let have basis and symmetric bilinear form
Its geometric representation sends the generator to the reflection
Integral Hecke algebra of level-one cusp forms Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-11-05
This is a particular modular Hecke algebra, with weight, level, and coefficient ring specified. It is distinct from the generic Hecke algebra attached to a Coxeter system.
First suppose is a Coxeter system. The usual exchange condition implies that multiplication by a simple generator changes length by exactly one. Let be reduced and suppose both and have length . The length of is therefore either or . In the latter case, apply exchange to the reduced word followed by . If exchange deleted one of the , multiplying the resulting equality on the left by would express the length- element using only generators. Hence exchange must delete the initial , giving . This is exactly the folding condition.
Conversely, suppose the folding condition holds, and let be the abstract Coxeter group with generators and matrix . The defining relations hold in , so there is a surjective homomorphism
It remains to prove injectivity. Take any word in the kernel. If its image word in is not reduced, choose its shortest nonreduced prefix , where is reduced and is its last generator. Part b gives , where is obtained by deleting one letter from . Hence , and and are two reduced expressions for the same element. By the assumed braid-equivalence theorem they are related by braid moves. Those moves are defining relations in , after which the end of the prefix becomes and shortens the original word by two.
Repeating this process turns the kernel word, using only Coxeter relations, into a word that is reduced in . Since its image is the identity, that reduced word is empty. The original word is therefore already the identity in , so . Hence is the Coxeter group with generators .
The Coxeter graph has vertex set . Distinct vertices are joined precisely when , and the edge is labelled when ; the customary unlabelled edge therefore means . The Coxeter system is an Irreducible Coxeter system precisely when this graph is connected.
Reduced expression in a Coxeter group Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A reduced expression in a Coxeter group has the least possible Coxeter length among expressions in the generators of its Coxeter system.
A reduced expression for is a product of the fewest possible simple generators representing . The number of factors is its Coxeter length .