Narrow normal subgroups of Coxeter groups and of automorphism groups of Coxeter groups (Q6122747)

Recall the celebrated theorem of Gromov, stating that each finitely generated group \((G,S)\) must either have superpolynomial growth (which can be summarized that only ``few relations'' between the elements of the generating set \(S\) hold true) or contain a solvable subgroup of finite index. In this paper, the authors Paris snd Varghese study two specific classes of finitely generated groups, which are Coxeter groups \((W,S)\) as well as ``extended'' or ``quasi''-Coxeter groups \(\mathrm{Aut}(W)\). For each Coxeter group \((W,S)\), the corresponding quasi-Coxeter group \(\mathrm{Aut}(W)\) can be realized as a semi-direct product of \(W\) under the action of its Coxeter-automorphisms (i.e. group automorphisms preserving the generating set \(S\)). These two classes of groups are intimately linked to the structure of Lie groups, Lie algebras and reflections in Euclidean spaces, thus provide some of the most important examples of finitely generated groups. Any finitely generated group containing a copy of the free group \(F_2 = \langle x,y\rangle\) in two generators will necessarily have exponential growth (and also contain subgroups isomorphic to any countable free group). All other groups are called ``narrow''. The authors prove that the narrow and normal subgroups of Coxeter groups are virtually abelian, i.e.\ contain a finite index subgroup isomorphic to some \(\mathbb Z^n\). One of the fundamental properties of Coxeter groups is the possibility to decompose them into ``irreducible components'', so that \(W = W_1\times W_2\times\cdots \times W_c\) for sub-Coxeter-groups \(W_1, \dotsc,W_c\) generated by subsets of \(S\). Each such components falls into one of three categories, which are called spherical, affine or indefinite. This is similar to e.g. the representation type of finite-dimensional algebras being finite, tame or wild. The authors prove that a normal narrow subgroup of \(W\) must be contained in the subgroup generated by all components which are spherical or affine. Moreover, each finite normal subgroup of \(W\) must be already contained in the subgroup generated by all spherical components. They also provide a natural generalization to aforementioned quasi-Coxeter groups \(\mathrm{Aut}(W)\).