On the Cyclically Fully Commutative Elements of Coxeter Groups

Let W be an arbitrary Coxeter group. If two elements have expressions that are cyclic shifts of each other (as words), then they are conjugate (as group elements) in W. We say that w is cyclically fully commutative (CFC) if every cyclic shift of any reduced expression for w is fully commutative (i.e., avoids long braid relations). These generalize Coxeter elements in that their reduced expressions can be described combinatorially by acyclic directed graphs, and cyclically shifting corresponds to source-to-sink

Strong Lefschetz elements of the coinvariant rings of finite Coxeter groups

For the coinvariant rings of finite Coxeter groups of types other than H$_4$, we show that a homogeneous element of degree one is a strong Lefschetz element if and only if it is not fixed by any reflections. We also give the necessary and sufficient condition for strong Lefschetz elements in the invariant subrings of the coinvariant rings of Weyl groups.

Decomposition numbers for finite Coxeter groups and generalised non-crossing partitions

Given a finite irreducible Coxeter group $W$, a positive integer $d$, and types $T_1,T_2,...,T_d$ (in the sense of the classification of finite Coxeter groups), we compute the number of decompositions $c=si_1si_2 cdotssi_d$ of a Coxeter element $c$ of $W$, such that $si_i$ is a Coxeter element in a subgroup of type $T_i$ in $W$, $i=1,2,...,d$, and such that the factorisation is minimal in the sense that the sum of the ranks of the $T_i$s, $i=1,2,...,d$, equals the rank of $W$. For the exceptional types, these decomposition numbers have been computed by the first author. The type $A_n$ decomposition numbers have been computed by Goulden and Jackson, albeit using a somewhat different language. We explain how to extract the type $B_n$ decomposition numbers from results of Bona, Bousquet, Labelle and Leroux on map enumeration. Our formula for the type $D_n$ decomposition numbers is new. These results are then used to determine, for a fixed positive integer $l$ and fixed integers $r_1le r_2le ...le r_l$, the number of multi-chains $pi_1le pi_2le ...le pi_l$ in Armstrongs generalised non-crossing partitions poset, where the poset rank of $pi_i$ equals $r_i$, and where the block structure of $pi_1$ is prescribed. We demonstrate that this result implies all known enumerative results on ordinary and generalised non-crossing partitions via appropriate summations. Surprisingly, this result on multi-chain enumeration is new even for the original non-crossing partitions of Kreweras. Moreover, the result allows one to solve the problem of rank-selected chain enumeration in the type $D_n$ generalised non-crossing partitions poset, which, in turn, leads to a proof of Armstrongs $F=M$ Conjecture in type $D_n$.

Toric heaps, cyclic reducibility, and conjugacy in Coxeter groups

As a visualization of Cartier and Foatas partially commutative monoid theory, G.X. Viennot introduced heaps of pieces in 1986. These are essentially labeled posets satisfying a few additional properties. They naturally arise as models of reduced words in Coxeter groups. In this paper, we introduce a cyclic version, motivated by the idea of taking a heap and wrapping it into a cylinder. We call this object a toric heap, as we formalize it as a labeled toric poset, which is a cyclic version of an ordinary poset. To define the concept of a toric extension, we develop a morphism in the category of toric heaps. We study toric heaps in Coxeter theory, in view of the fact that a cyclic shift of a reduced word is simply a conjugate by an initial or terminal generator. This allows us to formalize and study a framework of cyclic reducibility in Coxeter theory, and apply it to model conjugacy. We introduce the notion of torically reduced, which is stronger than being cyclically reduced for group elements. This gives rise to a new class of elements called torically fully commutative (TFC), which are those that have a unique cyclic commutativity class, and comprise a strictly bigger class than the cyclically fully commutative (CFC) elements. We prove several cyclic analogues of results on fully commutative (FC) elements due to Stembridge. We conclude with how this framework fits into recent work in Coxeter groups, and we correct a minor flaw in a few recently published theorems.

Arrangements stable under the Coxeter groups

Let B be a real hyperplane arrangement which is stable under the action of a Coxeter group W. Then B acts naturally on the set of chambers of B. We assume that B is disjoint from the Coxeter arrangement A=A(W) of W. In this paper, we show that the W-orbits of the set of chambers of B are in one-to-one correspondence with the chambers of C=Acup B which are contained in an arbitrarily fixed chamber of A. From this fact, we find that the number of W-orbits of the set of chambers of B is given by the number of chambers of C divided by the order of W. We will also study the set of chambers of C which are contained in a chamber b of B. We prove that the cardinality of this set is equal to the order of the isotropy subgroup W_b of b. We illustrate these results with some examples, and solve an open problem in Kamiya, Takemura and Terao [Ranking patterns of unfolding models of codimension one, Adv. in Appl. Math. (2010)] by using our results.