Freely braided elements in Coxeter groups. (Q1400787)

Let \((W,S)\) be a Coxeter group of some simply-laced type. Let \(\Phi\) be the root system of \((W,S)\) and \(\Phi^+\) and \(\Phi^-\) the positive and negative roots, respectively. For \(w\in W\), let \(\Phi(w)=\Phi^+\cap w^{-1}\Phi^-\) be the `inversion set' of \(w\). Every reduced expression of \(w\) defines a `root sequence' for \(w\). Any subset of \(\Phi(w)\) of the form \(\{\alpha,\alpha+\beta,\beta\}\) will be called an `inversion triple' of \(w\). An inversion triple \(T\) is called `contractible' if there is a root sequence for \(w\) in which the elements of \(T\) appear consecutively. If the contractible inversion triples of \(w\) are pairwise disjoint, then \(w\) is said to be `freely braided'. The Coxeter matrix associated with \((W,S)\) has entries \(m(s,t)\), where \(s,t\in S\). Here \(m(s,t)=1,2\), or \(3\) since \((W,S)\) is of a simply-laced type. Let \(S^*\) be the free monoid generated by \(S\). The authors introduce braid relations on \(S^*\) which are called short if \(m(s,t)=2\) and long if \(m(s,t)=3\). They use the term `commutation class' to refer to any equivalence class arising from the equivalence relation on \(S^*\) generated by the short braid relations. The authors show that every \(w\in W\) has at most \(2^{N(w)}\) commutation classes, where \(N(w)\) denotes the number of contractible inversion triples of \(w\); also, if \(w\) is freely braided, then \(w\) has precisely \(2^{N(w)}\) commutation classes of root sequences. They define a commutation graph \(G(W)\) for \(w\in W\) and they show that this graph is bipartite. If \((W,S)\) is of type \(A\), then they obtain more detailed results.