The excess zero graph of a Coxeter group

DOI10.1515/JGTH-2024-0175MaRDI QIDQ6879070zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Sarah B. Hart, Veronica Kelsey, Peter J. Rowley

Publication date 5 January 2026

Published in Journal of Group Theory (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1515/JGTH-2024-0175

zbMATH Keywords

Coxeter groupexcessinvolutionlength functionvalency distribution

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Graphs and abstract algebra (groups, rings, fields, etc.) (05C25) Generators, relations, and presentations of groups (20F05) Reflection and Coxeter groups (group-theoretic aspects) (20F55)

Review text

The paper under review introduces and studies a graph associated with a Coxeter group \(W\) and its length function \(\ell\). The excess zero graph \(\mathcal{E}_0(W)\) has vertex set \(\mathcal{I}(W)\), the non-identity involutions of \(W\), where two vertices \(x,y\) are adjacent if \(\ell(xy)=\ell(x)+\ell(y)\). This notion is motivated by the theory of excess and by questions related to involution prefixes and the ancestor property.\N\NThe main result, Theorem~1.2, determines the connectedness of \(\mathcal{E}_0(W)\). If \(W\) is finite, then \(\mathcal{E}_0(W)\) has exactly two connected components, one consisting of the longest element \(w_0\) alone and the other containing all remaining involutions. If \(W\) is infinite, then \(\mathcal{E}_0(W)\) is connected. Moreover, for Coxeter groups of rank at least~\(2\), the diameter of the component not containing \(w_0\) is at most~\(3\) and Section~3 determines the precise diameter in the finite, affine and several infinite cases.\N\NFurther results concern vertex valencies. For Coxeter groups of finite rank, Theorem~1.3 shows that for a fundamental reflection \(r\) the number of involutions adjacent to \(r\) in \(\mathcal{E}_0(W)\) equals the number of involutions not adjacent to \(r\), yielding in the finite case \(\frac{1}{2}\big(|\mathcal{I}(W)|-1 \big)\). In the case of symmetric groups, Theorem~1.5 provides recursive formulas for the valencies of involutions of minimal length in their conjugacy classes. The final section classifies pendant elements, that is, involutions of valency~\(1\), in all finite irreducible Coxeter groups.

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