Coxetergroup

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Inmathematics,aCoxetergroup,namedafterH.S.M.Coxeter,isanabstractgroupthatadmitsaformaldescriptionintermsof
reflections(orkaleidoscopicmirrors).Indeed,thefiniteCoxetergroupsarepreciselythefiniteEuclideanreflectiongroupsthe
symmetrygroupsofregularpolyhedraareanexample.However,notallCoxetergroupsarefinite,andnotallcanbedescribedinterms
ofsymmetriesandEuclideanreflections.Coxetergroupswereintroduced(Coxeter1934)asabstractionsofreflectiongroups,andfinite
Coxetergroupswereclassifiedin1935(Coxeter1935).
Coxetergroupsfindapplicationsinmanyareasofmathematics.ExamplesoffiniteCoxetergroupsincludethesymmetrygroupsof
regularpolytopes,andtheWeylgroupsofsimpleLiealgebras.ExamplesofinfiniteCoxetergroupsincludethetrianglegroups
correspondingtoregulartessellationsoftheEuclideanplaneandthehyperbolicplane,andtheWeylgroupsofinfinitedimensional
KacMoodyalgebras.
Standardreferencesinclude(Humphreys1992)and(Davis2007).

Contents
1 Definition
1.1 CoxetermatrixandSchlflimatrix
2 Anexample
3 Connectionwithreflectiongroups
4 FiniteCoxetergroups
4.1 Classification
4.2 Weylgroups
4.3 Properties
4.4 Symmetrygroupsofregular
polytopes
5 AffineCoxetergroups
6 HyperbolicCoxetergroups
7 Partialorders
8 Homology
9 Seealso
10 References
11 Furtherreading
12 Externallinks

Definition
Formally,aCoxetergroupcanbedefinedasagroupwiththepresentation

where

and

for

.Thecondition

meansnorelationoftheform

shouldbeimposed.

Thepair(W,S)whereWisaCoxetergroupwithgeneratorsS={r1,...,rn}iscalledCoxetersystem.NotethatingeneralSisnotuniquely
determinedbyW.Forexample,theCoxetergroupsoftypeB3andA1xA3areisomorphicbuttheCoxetersystemsarenotequivalent
(seebelowforanexplanationofthisnotation).
Anumberofconclusionscanbedrawnimmediatelyfromtheabovedefinition.
Therelationmii=1meansthat(riri)1=(ri)2=1forallithegeneratorsareinvolutions.
Ifmij=2,thenthegeneratorsriandrjcommute.Thisfollowsbyobservingthat
xx=yy=1,
togetherwith

xyxy=1
impliesthat
xy=x(xyxy)y=(xx)yx(yy)=yx.
Alternatively,sincethegeneratorsareinvolutions,
commutator.

,so

,andthusisequaltothe

Inordertoavoidredundancyamongtherelations,itisnecessarytoassumethatmij=mji.Thisfollowsbyobservingthat
yy=1,
togetherwith
(xy)m=1
impliesthat
(yx)m=(yx)myy=y(xy)my=yy=1.
Alternatively,

and

areconjugateelements,as

CoxetermatrixandSchlflimatrix
TheCoxetermatrixisthenn,symmetricmatrixwithentriesmij.Indeed,everysymmetricmatrixwithpositiveintegerandentries
andwith1'sonthediagonalsuchthatallnondiagonalentriesaregreaterthan1servestodefineaCoxetergroup.
TheCoxetermatrixcanbeconvenientlyencodedbyaCoxeterdiagram,asperthefollowingrules.
Theverticesofthegrapharelabelledbygeneratorsubscripts.
Verticesiandjareconnectedifandonlyifmij3.
Anedgeislabelledwiththevalueofmijwheneveritis4orgreater.
Inparticular,twogeneratorscommuteifandonlyiftheyarenotconnectedbyanedge.Furthermore,ifaCoxetergraphhastwoor
moreconnectedcomponents,theassociatedgroupisthedirectproductofthegroupsassociatedtotheindividualcomponents.Thusthe
disjointunionofCoxetergraphsyieldsadirectproductofCoxetergroups.
TheCoxetermatrix,Mi,j,isrelatedtotheSchlflimatrix,Ci,j,buttheelementsaremodified,beingproportionaltothedotproductof
thepairwisegenerators:SchlflimatrixCi,j=2cos(/Mi,j).TheSchlflimatrixisusefulbecauseitseigenvaluesdeterminewhetherthe
Coxetergroupisoffinitetype(allpositive),affinetype(allnonnegative,atleastonezero),orindefinitetype(otherwise).The
indefinitetypeissometimesfurthersubdivided,e.g.intohyperbolicandotherCoxetergroups.However,therearemultiplenon
equivalentdefinitionsforhyperbolicCoxetergroups.

Coxetergroup
Coxeterdiagram
Coxetermatrix

Schlflimatrix

Anexample

A1A1

A2

Examples
A3

B3

D4

Thegraphinwhichvertices1throughnareplacedinarowwitheachvertexconnectedbyanunlabellededgetoitsimmediate
neighborsgivesrisetothesymmetricgroupSn+1thegeneratorscorrespondtothetranspositions(12),(23),...(nn+1).Twonon
consecutivetranspositionsalwayscommute,while(kk+1)(k+1k+2)givesthe3cycle(kk+2k+1).OfcoursethisonlyshowsthatSn+1
isaquotientgroupoftheCoxetergroupdescribedbythegraph,butitisnottoodifficulttocheckthatequalityholds.

Connectionwithreflectiongroups
Coxetergroupsaredeeplyconnectedwithreflectiongroups.Simplyput,Coxetergroupsareabstractgroups(givenviaapresentation),
whilereflectiongroupsareconcretegroups(givenassubgroupsoflineargroupsorvariousgeneralizations).Coxetergroupsgrewout
ofthestudyofreflectiongroupstheyareanabstraction:areflectiongroupisasubgroupofalineargroupgeneratedbyreflections
(whichhaveorder2),whileaCoxetergroupisanabstractgroupgeneratedbyinvolutions(elementsoforder2,abstractingfrom
reflections),andwhoserelationshaveacertainform(
,correspondingtohyperplanesmeetingatanangleof
,with
beingoforderkabstractingfromarotationby
).
TheabstractgroupofareflectiongroupisaCoxetergroup,whileconverselyareflectiongroupcanbeseenasalinearrepresentationof
aCoxetergroup.Forfinitereflectiongroups,thisyieldsanexactcorrespondence:everyfiniteCoxetergroupadmitsafaithful
representationasafinitereflectiongroupofsomeEuclideanspace.ForinfiniteCoxetergroups,however,aCoxetergroupmaynot
admitarepresentationasareflectiongroup.
Historically,(Coxeter1934)provedthateveryreflectiongroupisaCoxetergroup(i.e.,hasapresentationwhereallrelationsareofthe
form or
),andindeedthispaperintroducedthenotionofaCoxetergroup,while(Coxeter1935)provedthateveryfinite
Coxetergrouphadarepresentationasareflectiongroup,andclassifiedfiniteCoxetergroups.

FiniteCoxetergroups
Classification
ThefiniteCoxetergroupswereclassifiedin
(Coxeter1935),intermsofCoxeterDynkin
diagramstheyareallrepresentedbyreflection
groupsoffinitedimensionalEuclideanspaces.
ThefiniteCoxetergroupsconsistofthreeone
parameterfamiliesofincreasingrank
oneoneparameterfamilyofdimensiontwo,
andsixexceptionalgroups:
and

CoxetergraphsofthefiniteCoxetergroups.

Weylgroups
Many,butnotallofthese,areWeylgroups,andeveryWeylgroupcanberealizedasaCoxetergroup.TheWeylgroupsarethefamilies
and
andtheexceptions
and
denotedinWeylgroupnotationas
ThenonWeylgroupsarethe
exceptions and
andthefamily
exceptwherethiscoincideswithoneoftheWeylgroups(namely
and
).
Thiscanbeprovenbycomparingtherestrictionson(undirected)DynkindiagramswiththerestrictionsonCoxeterdiagramsoffinite
groups:formally,theCoxetergraphcanbeobtainedfromtheDynkindiagrambydiscardingthedirectionoftheedges,andreplacing
everydoubleedgewithanedgelabelled4andeverytripleedgebyanedgelabelled6.AlsonotethateveryfinitelygeneratedCoxeter
groupisanAutomaticgroup.[1]Dynkindiagramshavetheadditionalrestrictionthattheonlypermittededgelabelsare2,3,4,and6,
whichyieldstheabove.Geometrically,thiscorrespondstothecrystallographicrestrictiontheorem,andthefactthatexcludedpolytopes
donotfillspaceortiletheplanefor
thedodecahedron(dually,icosahedron)doesnotfillspacefor
the120cell(dually,600
cell)doesnotfillspacefor
apgondoesnottiletheplaneexceptfor
or (thetriangular,square,andhexagonaltilings,
respectively).
Notefurtherthatthe(directed)DynkindiagramsBnandCngiverisetothesameWeylgroup(henceCoxetergroup),becausetheydiffer
asdirectedgraphs,butagreeasundirectedgraphsdirectionmattersforrootsystemsbutnotfortheWeylgroupthiscorrespondsto
thehypercubeandcrosspolytopebeingdifferentregularpolytopesbuthavingthesamesymmetrygroup.

Properties
SomepropertiesofthefiniteCoxetergroupsaregiveninthefollowingtable:
Group Alternate
Bracketnotation Rank
symbol symbol

Order

Relatedpolytopes

CoxeterDynkindiagram

An

An

[3n1]

(n+1)!

nsimplex

..

Bn

Cn

[4,3n2]

2nn!

nhypercube/ncrosspolytope

...

Dn

Bn

[3n3,1,1]

2n1n!

ndemihypercube

...

E6

E6

[32,2,1]

72x6!=51840

221,122

E7

E7

[33,2,1]

72x8!=2903040

321,231,132

E8

E8

[34,2,1]

192x10!=696729600

421,241,142

F4

F4

[3,4,3]

1152

24cell

G2

[6]

12

hexagon

H2

G2

[5]

10

pentagon

H3

G3

[3,5]

120

icosahedron/dodecahedron

H4

G4

[3,3,5]

14400

120cell/600cell

I2(p)

D2p

[p]

2p

pgon

or

Symmetrygroupsofregularpolytopes
AllsymmetrygroupsofregularpolytopesarefiniteCoxetergroups.Notethatdualpolytopeshavethesamesymmetrygroup.
Therearethreeseriesofregularpolytopesinalldimensions.ThesymmetrygroupofaregularnsimplexisthesymmetricgroupSn+1,
alsoknownastheCoxetergroupoftypeAn.Thesymmetrygroupofthencubeanditsdual,thencrosspolytope,isBn,andisknown
asthehyperoctahedralgroup.
Theexceptionalregularpolytopesindimensionstwo,three,andfour,correspondtootherCoxetergroups.Intwodimensions,the
dihedralgroups,whicharethesymmetrygroupsofregularpolygons,formtheseriesI2(p).Inthreedimensions,thesymmetrygroupof
theregulardodecahedronanditsdual,theregularicosahedron,isH3,knownasthefullicosahedralgroup.Infourdimensions,thereare
threespecialregularpolytopes,the24cell,the120cell,andthe600cell.ThefirsthassymmetrygroupF4,whiletheothertwoare
dualandhavesymmetrygroupH4.
TheCoxetergroupsoftypeDn,E6,E7,andE8arethesymmetrygroupsofcertainsemiregularpolytopes.

Tableofirreduciblepolytopefamilies
Family
nsimplex nhypercube northoplex ndemicube
n
Group

An

BCn

I2(p)

Dn

E6

2k1
E7

E8

k21
F4

pentagonalpolytope

G2

Hn

2
Triangle

1k2

pgon
(example:
p=7)

Square

Hexagon

Pentagon

Tetrahedron

Cube

Tetrahedron

Octahedron

Dodecahedron Icosahedron

4
5cell

16cell

Tesseract

Demitesseract

5cube

120cell

5simplex

24cell

5demicube

5orthoplex

6simplex

6orthoplex

6cube

122

6demicube

221

7simplex

7cube

7demicube

7orthoplex

132

231

321

8simplex

8cube

8orthoplex

8demicube

142

241

421

600cell

9demicube

9simplex

9cube

9orthoplex

10

10simplex

10cube

10
orthoplex

10demicube

AffineCoxetergroups
TheaffineCoxetergroupsformasecondimportantseriesof
Coxetergroups.Thesearenotfinitethemselves,buteachcontainsa
normalabeliansubgroupsuchthatthecorrespondingquotientgroup
isfinite.Ineachcase,thequotientgroupisitselfaCoxetergroup,
andtheCoxetergraphisobtainedfromtheCoxetergraphofthe
Coxetergroupbyaddinganothervertexandoneortwoadditional
edges.Forexample,forn2,thegraphconsistingofn+1vertices
inacircleisobtainedfromAninthisway,andthecorresponding
CoxetergroupistheaffineWeylgroupofAn.Forn=2,thiscanbe
picturedasthesymmetrygroupofthestandardtilingoftheplane
byequilateraltriangles.

CoxeterdiagramsfortheAffineCoxetergroups

AlistoftheaffineCoxetergroupsfollows:
Group Witt
Bracketnotation Relateduniformtessellation(s) CoxeterDynkindiagram
symbol symbol
Pn+1

[3[n]]

Simplectichoneycomb

...
or
...

Sn+1

[4,3n3,31,1]

Demihypercubichoneycomb

...

Rn+1

[4,3n2,4]

Hypercubichoneycomb

...

Qn+1

[31,1,3n4,31,1]

Demihypercubichoneycomb

...

T7

[32,2,2]

222

T8

[33,3,1]

331,133

T9

[35,2,1]

521,251,152

U5

[3,4,3,3]

16cellhoneycomb
24cellhoneycomb

V3

[6,3]

Hexagonaltilingand
Triangulartiling

W2

[]

apeirogon

or
or

Thegroupsymbolsubscriptisonelessthanthenumberofnodesineachcase,sinceeachofthesegroupswasobtainedbyaddinga
nodetoafinitegroup'sgraph.

HyperbolicCoxetergroups
ThereareinfinitelymanyhyperbolicCoxetergroupsdescribingreflectiongroupsinhyperbolicspace,notablyincludingthehyperbolic
trianglegroups.

Partialorders
AchoiceofreflectiongeneratorsgivesrisetoalengthfunctionlonaCoxetergroup,namelytheminimumnumberofusesof
generatorsrequiredtoexpressagroupelementthisispreciselythelengthinthewordmetricintheCayleygraph.Anexpressionforv
usingl(v)generatorsisareducedword.Forexample,thepermutation(13)inS3hastworeducedwords,(12)(23)(12)and(23)(12)(23).
Thefunction

definesamap

generalizingthesignmapforthesymmetricgroup.

UsingreducedwordsonemaydefinethreepartialordersontheCoxetergroup,the(right)weakorder,theabsoluteorderandthe
Bruhatorder(namedforFranoisBruhat).AnelementvexceedsanelementuintheBruhatorderifsome(orequivalently,any)
reducedwordforvcontainsareducedwordforuasasubstring,wheresomeletters(inanyposition)aredropped.Intheweakorder,v
uifsomereducedwordforvcontainsareducedwordforuasaninitialsegment.Indeed,thewordlengthmakesthisintoagraded
poset.TheHassediagramscorrespondingtotheseordersareobjectsofstudy,andarerelatedtotheCayleygraphdeterminedbythe
generators.Theabsoluteorderisdefinedanalogouslytotheweakorder,butwithgeneratingset/alphabetconsistingofallconjugatesof
theCoxetergenerators.
Forexample,thepermutation(123)inS3hasonlyonereducedword,(12)(23),socovers(12)and(23)intheBruhatorderbutonly
covers(12)intheweakorder.

Homology
SinceaCoxetergroupWisgeneratedbyfinitelymanyelementsoforder2,itsabelianizationisanelementaryabelian2group,i.e.itis
isomorphictothedirectsumofseveralcopiesofthecyclicgroupZ2.ThismayberestatedintermsofthefirsthomologygroupofW.
TheSchurmultiplierM(W)(relatedtothesecondhomology)wascomputedin(Ihara&Yokonuma1965)forfinitereflectiongroups
andin(Yokonuma1965)foraffinereflectiongroups,withamoreunifiedaccountgivenin(Howlett1988).Inallcases,theSchur
multiplierisalsoanelementaryabelian2group.Foreachinfinitefamily{Wn}offiniteoraffineWeylgroups,therankofM(W)
stabilizesasngoestoinfinity.

Seealso
Artingroup
Trianglegroup
Coxeterelement
Coxeternumber
Complexreflectiongroup
ChevalleyShephardToddtheorem
CoxeterDynkindiagram
Heckealgebra,aquantumdeformationofthegroupalgebra
KazhdanLusztigpolynomial
LongestelementofaCoxetergroup
Supersolublearrangement

References
1.Brink,BrigitteHowlett,RobertB.(1993),"AfinitenesspropertyandanautomaticstructureforCoxetergroups",MathematischeAnnalen,296
(1):179190,doi:10.1007/BF01445101,Zbl0793.20036.

Furtherreading

Coxeter,H.S.M.(1934),"Discretegroupsgeneratedbyreflections",Ann.ofMath.,35(3):588621,JSTOR1968753
Coxeter,H.S.M.(1935),"Thecompleteenumerationoffinitegroupsoftheform
",J.LondonMath.Soc.,1,
10(1):2125,doi:10.1112/jlms/s110.37.21
Davis,MichaelW.(2007),TheGeometryandTopologyofCoxeterGroups(PDF),ISBN9780691131382,Zbl1142.20020
Grove,LarryC.Benson,ClarkT.(1985),FiniteReflectionGroups,Graduatetextsinmathematics,99,Springer,ISBN9780
387960821
Humphreys,JamesE.(1992)[1990],ReflectionGroupsandCoxeterGroups,CambridgeStudiesinAdvancedMathematics,29,
CambridgeUniversityPress,ISBN9780521436137,Zbl0725.20028
Kane,Richard(2001),ReflectionGroupsandInvariantTheory,CMSBooksinMathematics,Springer,ISBN978038798979
2,Zbl0986.20038
Bjrner,AndersBrenti,Francesco(2005),CombinatoricsofCoxeterGroups,GraduateTextsinMathematics,231,Springer,
ISBN9783540275961,Zbl1110.05001
Hiller,Howard(1982),GeometryofCoxetergroups,ResearchNotesinMathematics,54,Pitman,ISBN9780273085171,
Zbl0483.57002
Bourbaki,Nicolas(2002),LieGroupsandLieAlgebras:Chapters46,ElementsofMathematics,Springer,ISBN9783540
426509,Zbl0983.17001
Howlett,RobertB.(1988),"OntheSchurMultipliersofCoxeterGroups",J.LondonMath.Soc.,2,38(2):263276,
doi:10.1112/jlms/s238.2.263,Zbl0627.20019
Vinberg,E.B.(1984),"AbsenceofcrystallographicgroupsofreflectionsinLobachevskispacesoflargedimension",Trudy
Moskov.Mat.Obshch.,47
Ihara,S.Yokonuma,Takeo(1965),"Onthesecondcohomologygroups(Schurmultipliers)offinitereflectiongroups"(PDF),
Jour.Fac.Sci.Univ.Tokyo,Sect.1,11:155171,Zbl0136.28802
Yokonuma,Takeo(1965),"Onthesecondcohomologygroups(Schurmultipliers)ofinfinitediscretereflectiongroups",Jour.
Fac.Sci.Univ.Tokyo,Sect.1,11:173186,Zbl0136.28803

Externallinks
Hazewinkel,Michiel,ed.(2001),"Coxetergroup",EncyclopediaofMathematics,Springer,ISBN9781556080104
Weisstein,EricW."Coxetergroup".MathWorld.
JennsoftwareforvisualizingtheCayleygraphsoffiniteCoxetergroupsonuptofourgenerators
Retrievedfrom"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coxeter_group&oldid=720271493"
Categories: Coxetergroups Reflectiongroups
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