Weyl groupoids of rank two and continued fractions. (Q2270637)

The work under review is a study of Weyl groupoids corresponding to Cartan schemes of rank two. A Cartan scheme is a quadruple \(\mathcal C=(I,A,(\rho_i),(C^a))\), where \(A,I\) are nonempty sets, \(I\) finite, \(a\in A\), \(i\in I\), \(\rho_i\colon A\to A\) a map with \(\rho_i^2\) the identity; and \(C^a=(c_{jk}^a)\) a generalized Cartan matrix in \(\mathbb{Z}^{I\times I}\) such that \(c_{jk}^a=c_{jk}^{\rho_j(a)}\), \(j,k\in I\). Such a scheme gives rise to a category of Weyl groupoids \(\mathcal W(\mathcal C)\) whose objects are the elements of \(A\) and whose morphisms are generated by the maps \(\sigma_i^a\in\Hom(a,\rho_i(a))\). If \(A\) is finite and \(\text{End}(a)\) contains only even elements for all \(a\in A\) one can associate a sequence \((c_1,c_2,\dots,c_{|A|})\) of nonnegative integers to \(\mathcal C\). Such a sequence is the characteristic sequence of \(\mathcal C\), and is the primary tool in this study. The main result is as follows. Suppose \(\mathcal C\) is a connected, centrally symmetric Cartan scheme with characteristic sequence \((c_1,c_2,\dots,c_{|A|/2},c_1,c_2,\dots c_{|A|/2})\) with \(|A|\geq 4\). (The pattern in the characteristic sequence indicates that \(\mathcal C\) is ``centrally symmetric''.) If \(c_i=0\) for some \(i\) then \(C^a\) is diagonal for all \(A\) and \(\mathcal C\) admits a finite root system precisely when \(|A|=4\). On the other hand, if \(c_i\geq 2\) for all \(i\) then \(\mathcal C\) does not admit a finite root system. Now suppose \(c_2=1\). If in addition \(c_1=1\) or \(c_3=1\) then \(\mathcal C\) admits a finite root system if and only if \(|A|=6\) and \(c_1=c_3=1\). If instead \(c_1>1\) and \(|A|=4\) then a finite root system exists if and only if \(c_1=2\) or \(3\). Finally, suppose \(c_1,c_3>1\) and \(|A|\geq 6\): in this case \(\mathcal C\) has a finite root system if and only if the Cartan scheme with \(\text{End}(a)\) containing only even elements with characteristic sequence \((c_1-1,c_3-1,c_4,\dots,c_{|A/2|},c_1-1,c_3-1,c_4,\dots,c_{|A/2|})\) admits a finite root system. The proof of the above result uses continued fractions in an indirect manner. In fact, the root systems of rank two Cartan matrices correspond to finite sequences of positive integers which in turn correspond to divergent continued fractions.