A general commutative descent algebra (Q1897805)

Inspired by the work of \textit{J. Tits} [J. Algebra 41, 264-268 (1976; Zbl 0355.20007)], the author constructs, for any finite Weyl group, a commutative algebra obtained from the affine Weyl system. Let \(W\) be a Weyl group. Let \(\Delta=\{\alpha_1,\alpha_2,\dots,\alpha_n\}\) be a simple root system for \(W\). Denote by \(r_i\) the reflection with respect to the hyperplane \(\langle x,\alpha_i\rangle=0\). Let \(- \alpha_0\) denote the highest root with respect to \(\Delta\) and define the retour of \(w\in W\) with respect to \(\Delta\cup\{\alpha_0\}\) to be the set \(R(w)=\{0\leq i\leq n : w^{-1}(\alpha_i) < 0\}\). For \(I\subseteq\{0,1,\dots, n\}\) let \(u_I=\sum_{R(w)\cap I=\emptyset} w\). Denote by \(r^{(k)}_0\) the reflection with respect to the hyperplane \(\langle x,\alpha_0\rangle=-k\) and let \(W_k\) be the group generated by the reflections \(r^{(k)}_0\), \(r_1, r_2,\dots, r_n\). For \(X_k\), the right coset representatives of \(W_k\setminus W_1\) of minimal length, let \(x_k\) denote the sum of the elements of \(X_k\) under the canonical projection \(W_k\mapsto W\). The author shows that \(x_k x_h=x_{kh}\). Hence the \(x_k\) span a commutative subalgebra of the group algebra of \(W\). Moreover she shows that \(x_k\) can be expressed in terms of the elements \(u_I\) above. Finally she computes the dimension of this subalgebra for \(W=G_2\), \(F_4\) and \(E_8\). She finds bounds for the dimension in the case \(W=B_n\) and \(D_n\), and the case \(W=C_n\) is fully detailed in the subsequent part II [ibid., 1015-1026 (1995; cf. the following review Zbl 0832.20061)]. Some questions remain open. For the simple case \(W=A_n\), the symmetric group, the algebra spanned by the \(x_k\) is not understood. It is also not clear what the relationship is between the algebra constructed by the author and the classical descent algebra.