Non-broken circuits of reflection groups and factorization in \(D_ n\) (Q1903117)

Let \(W\) be a finite reflection group and let \(\Pi_W\) be its corresponding system of roots which is in one-to-one correspondence with the set of reflections of \(W\). For any subset \(S\subseteq \Pi_W\) one defines the closure \(\overline {S}\) of \(S\) as follows: \(\overline {S}= \Pi_W\cap L(S)\) where \(L(S)\) is the linear span of \(S\) in \(\mathbb{R}^n\). Let \(C_W\) be the collection of closed subsets of \(\Pi_W\). When one orders the elements of \(C_W\) by inclusion, one obtains a ranked poset \((C_W,\subseteq)\) that becomes a geometric lattice if one defines the meet and join operations to be \(x\wedge y= x\cap y\) and \(x\vee y= \overline {x\cup y}\) [see \textit{G. Birkhoff}, Lattice theory, Am. Math. Soc. Colloq. Publ. 25 (1979; see Zbl 0153.02501 for a review)]. The elements of rank one in the lattice \((C_W, \subseteq)\), called the atoms, are the vectors of \(\Pi_W\). Let \(S= \{v_1, v_2, \dots, v_p\} \subseteq C_W\) be a set of atoms of \((C_W, \subseteq)\) and let \(\vee S= v_1\vee v_2\vee \dots\vee v_p\), then the rank \(r(\vee S)\) of \(\vee S\) is given by \(r(\vee S)= \dim(L(S))\). A set \(S= \{v_1, v_2, \dots, v_p\}\subseteq \Pi_W\) is said to be independent if and only if \(r(\vee S)= |S|\). Otherwise \(S\) is dependent. A circuit is a dependent set \(S\subseteq \Pi_W\) such that all its proper subsets \(T\subset S\) are independent. Given a total order \(<_W\) on the set \(\Pi_W\) of atoms, one says \(S= \{v_1, v_2, \dots, v_p\}\) is a broken circuit, denoted BC, if there is an element \(v\in \Pi_W\) such that \(v<_W v_k\) for all \(k=1,2, \dots, p\) and \(S\cup \{v\}\) is a circuit. In other words, the broken circuits are obtained from the circuits by removing the smallest atom. A non-broken circuit, denoted NBC, is a set of atoms that does not contain any broken circuit. It can be shown that any NBC is independent. The set of non-broken circuits of a reflection group \(W\), denoted \(\text{NBC} (W)\), appears as a basis of the Orlik-Solomon algebra of \(W\) [\textit{P. Orlik, L. Solomon}, Invent. Math. 56, 167-189 (1980; Zbl 0432.14016)]. The factorization of their enumerating polynomial \(\sum_{S\in \text{NBC}(W)} t^{|S|}= \prod^k_{i=1} (1+ (d_i-1) t)\) with respect to their cardinality involves the exponents \(d_i-1\) of \(W\). A simple explanation of this factorization is known only for the symmetric groups \(S_n\) [\textit{H. Whitney}, Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 38, 572-579 (1932; Zbl 0005.14602)]\ and for the hyperoctahedral groups \(B_n\) [\textit{G. I. Lehrer}, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 47, 219-234 (1987; Zbl 0653.20045)]. In this paper, the author presents an elementary proof of the fact that the set \(\text{NBC} (W)\) of any reflection group \(W\) is in bijection with the group elements of \(W\). The author gives a simple characterization of the non-broken circuits of the Weyl groups of type \(D_n\) and the author uses this characterization to prove the factorization of their enumerating polynomial.