On the centre of Iwahori-Hecke algebras (Q6568819)

The purpose of the paper under review is the study and characterization of the center of Hecke algebras associated to a group \(W\). If \(W\) is a Coxeter group of spherical type, Tits' deformation theorem shows that the complex Hecke algebra does not depend on the deformation parameter and in particular provides a calculation of the centre's dimension, which equals the number of irreducible complex representations of the Coxeter group. In the affine case, a theorem proved by Bernstein and presented in [\textit{G. Lusztig}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 2, No. 3, 599--635 (1989; Zbl 0715.22020)] shows that the centre of an affine Hecke algebra is finitely generated and that the algebra itself is a finitely generated module over its centre.\N\NIn this paper, the authors prove triviality of the centre of arbitrary Hecke algebras of irreducible non-finite non-affine type. This result is obtained as a consequence of the following structure result for conjugacy classes of the underlying Coxeter groups. If \(W\) is any infinite irreducible Coxeter group and \(w \in W\) is a non-trivial element that is assumed not to be a translation in case \(W\) is affine then there is an infinite sequence of conjugates of \(w\) by Coxeter generators whose length is non-decreasing and tends to infinity.