\(T\)-increasing paths on the Bruhat graph of affine Weyl groups are self-avoiding (Q1570868): Difference between revisions

This article proves two results about affine Weyl groups. Let \(W\) be an affine Weyl group, and define the Bruhat graph \(\Gamma\) of \(W\) to the graph whose vertices are elements of \(W\), with an edge between \(v\) and \(w\) if and only if \(vw^{-1}\) is a reflection. Let \(\leq\) be a total reflection order on the set of reflections \(T\) of \(W\). A total reflection order is a total order \(\leq\) on \(T\) such that for any two positive roots \(\alpha,\beta\) of the Coxeter system, with \(r_\alpha\leq r_\beta\), if \(c\alpha+d\beta\) is also a positive root, then \(r_\alpha\leq r_{c\alpha+d\beta}\leq r_\beta\). Given a total reflection order \(\leq\), a \(T\)-increasing path in \(\Gamma\) is a path \(v_1,v_2,\dots,v_k\) such that for all \(i\), \(v_{i-1}v_i^{-1}\leq v_iv_{i+1}^{-1}\). That is, the edges of the path are in ascending order with respect to the total reflection order. This should not be confused with the concept of a \(T\)-increasing chain in \(\Gamma\), where the vertices are in ascending order with respect to the Bruhat order on \(W\). The author proves that a \(T\)-increasing path in an affine Weyl group does not meet itself, and conjectures that this will also be the case for any Coxeter group. To state the second theorem given in the article, some more definitions must be given. For any \(w\in W\), let \(T_w\) be the set of all reflections \(t\) for which the length of \(tw\) is less than that of \(t\). Then, for an affine Weyl group with a total reflection order \(\leq\), if \(\leq^\ast\) is the opposite order to \(\leq\), then the following holds. Let \(A\subseteq T\) be finite. Then there exists \(v_1,v_2\in W\) such that \(A\subseteq T_{v_1}\cup T_{v_2}\), and \(T_{v_1}\cap T_{v_2}=\emptyset\). Moreover, there is a reduced expression of \(v_1\) which induces \(\leq\) on \(A\cap T_{v_1}\), and a reduced expression of \(V_2\) which induces \(\leq^\ast\) on \(A\cap T_{v_2}\).