Spin covers of maximal compact subgroups of Kac-Moody groups and spin-extended Weyl groups (Q524629)

The authors obtain two important results, expressed in Theorem A and Theorem B. In Theorem A, the authors assume that \(\Pi\) is an irreducible simply-laced Dynkin diagram and \(K(\Pi)\) is the subgroup of elements fixed by the Cartan-Chevalley involutions of the split Kac-Moody group of type \(\Pi\). They make several other assumptions and show that up to isomorphism there exists a uniquely determined group \(\text{Spin}(\Pi)\) with certain desirable properties. Theorem B is a consequence of Theorem A. In Theorem B, the authors assume that \(\Pi\) is an irreducible simply-laced Dynkin diagram. They give generators and determine defining relations for \(W^{\text{spin}}(\Pi)\). \textit{T. Damour} and \textit{C. Hillmann} [``Fermionic Kac-Moody billiards and supergravity'', J. High Energy Phys. 2009, No. 8, Paper No. 100, 55 p. (2009; \url{doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2009/08/100})] conjecture that the spin-extended Weyl group \(W^{\text{spin}}(E_{10})\) can be constructed as a discrete subgroup of a double spin cover \(\text{Spin}(E_{10})\) of the subgroup \(K(E_{10})\) of elements fixed by the Cartan-Chevalley involution of the split real Kac-Moody group of type \(E_{10}\). The authors state that the purpose of the present article is to confirm this conjecture and to generalize it to arbitrary diagrams and arbitrary generalized Cartan matrices. The authors obtain many related results, e.g., they show that for nonspherical diagrams \(\Pi\) the groups \(\text{Spin}(\Pi)\) and \(K(\Pi)\) are never simple.