76 Coxeter groups

In this chapter we describe functions for dealing with general Coxeter groups.

A suitable reference for the general theory is, for example, the volume of Bourbaki Bou68; an English reference is the book of Humphreys Hum90.

A Coxeter group is a group W defined by a presentation of the form

⟨ s1, ..., sn | (si sj)m(i,j)=1 for all i, j ⟩
for some integers m(i,j), where m(i,j)>1 for i ≠ j and m(i,i)=1 for all i. The matrix {m(i,j)}i,j is called the Coxeter matrix. It is true (but a non-trivial theorem) that in a Coxeter group the order of si sj is exactly m(i,j), thus a Coxeter group is the same as a Coxeter system, that is a pair (W,S) of a group W and a set S of involutions, such that the group is presented by relations describing the order of the product of two elements of S. A Coxeter group has a natural representation on a real vector space V of dimension the number of generators, where each generator acts as a reflection, its reflection representation (see CoxeterGroupByCoxeterMatrix); the faithfulness of this representation in the main argument to prove that the order of si sj is exactly m(i,j). Thus Coxeter groups are real reflection groups. The converse need not be true if the set of reflecting hyperplanes has bad topological properties, but it turns out that finite Coxeter groups are the same as finite real reflection groups. The corresponding possible Coxeter matrices have been completely classified, and the corresponding groups play a deep role in several areas of mathematics.

One main reason general Coxeter groups are useful is that they have a nice solution to the word problem. The length l(w) of an element w of W is the minimum number of elements of S of which it is a product (since the elements of S are involutions, we do not need inverses). An expression of w of minimal length as a product of elements of S is called a reduced word for w. The main property here is the exchange lemma which states that if s∈ S and l(sw) ≤ l(w) then there exists a reduced word s s2 ... sk of w which starts with s (thus s2... sk is a reduced word of sw). Thus given s∈ S and w∈ W, either l(sw)=l(w)+1 or l(sw)=l(w)-1 and we say in this last case that s belongs to the left descent set of w. The computation of reduced word for elements, and all kinds of word problems, can be easily done if we know the left descent sets of elements. For most Coxeter groups that we will be able to build in CHEVIE, this left descent set can be easily determined (see e.g. CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup below), so this suggests how to deal with Coxeter groups in CHEVIE: they are reflection groups, so the following fields in the group record defined:

.nbGeneratingReflections:

the size of S

.reflections:

a list of elements of W, such that W.reflections{[1..W.nbGeneratingReflections]} is the set S.

the above names are used instead of names like CoxeterGenerators and CoxeterRank since the Coxeter groups are reflection groups and we want the functions for reflection groups applicable to them (similarly, if you have read the chapter on reflections and reflection groups, you will realize that there is also a field .OrdersGeneratingReflections which contains only 2's). The main additional function which allows to compute within Coxeter groups is:

.operations.IsLeftDescending(W,w,i):

returns true if and only if the i-th element of S is in the left descending set of w.

For Coxeter groups constructed in CHEVIE an IsLeftDescending operation is provided, but you can construct your own Coxeter groups just by filling the above fields (see the function CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup below for an example). It should be noted than you can make into a Coxeter group any kind of group: finitely presented groups, permutation groups or matrix groups, if you fill appropriately the above fields; and the given generating reflection do not have to be the generators of the group (but they could be; they usually are, actually, in CHEVIE). All functions for Coxeter group and Hecke algebras will then work for your Coxeter groups (using your function IsLeftDescending).

A common occurrence in CHEVIE code for Coxeter groups is a loop like:

First([1..W.semisimpleRank],x->IsLeftDescending(W,w,x))

which actually for reflection subgroups becomes

First(W.rootRestriction{[1..W.semisimpleRank]},x->IsLeftDescending(W,w,x))

where the overhead is quite large, since dispatching on the group type (e.g. finite or infinite) is done in IsLeftDescending. To improve this case, if you provide a function FirstLeftDescending(W,w) it will be called instead of the above loop (if you do not provide one the above loop will be used). Such a function provided by CHEVIE in the programs for finite Coxeter groups is 3 times more efficient than the above loop.

Because of the easy solution of the word problem in Coxeter groups, a convenient way to represent their elements is as words in the Coxeter generators. They are represented in CHEVIE as lists of labels for the generators. By default these labels are given as the index of a generator in S, so a Coxeter word is just a list of integers which run from 1 to the length of S. This can be changed to reflect a more conventional notation for some groups, by changing the field .reflectionsLabels of the Coxeter group which contains the labels used for the Coxeter words (by default it contains [1..W.nbGeneratingReflections]). For a Coxeter group with 2 generators, you could for instance set this field to "st" to use words such as "sts" instead of [1,2,1]. For reflection subgroups, this is used in CHEVIE by setting the reflection labels to the indices of the generators in the set S of the parent group (which is given by .rootInclusion).

The functions CoxeterWord and EltWord will do the conversion between Coxeter words and elements of the group.

    gap> W := CoxeterGroup( "D", 4 );;
    gap> p := EltWord( W, [ 1, 3, 2, 1, 3 ] );
    ( 1,14,13, 2)( 3,17, 8,18)( 4,12)( 5,20, 6,15)( 7,10,11, 9)(16,24)
    (19,22,23,21)
    gap> CoxeterWord( W, p );
    [ 1, 3, 1, 2, 3 ] 
    gap> W.reflectionsLabels:="stuv";           
    "stuv"
    gap> CoxeterWord(W,p);
    "sustu"

We notice that the word we started with and the one that we ended up with, are not the same. But of course, they represent the same element of W. The reason for this difference is that the function CoxeterWord always computes a reduced word which is the lexicographically smallest among all possible expressions of an element of W as a word in the fundamental reflections. The function ReducedCoxeterWord does the same but with a word as input (rather than an element of the group). Below are some other possible computations with the same Coxeter group as above:

    gap> LongestCoxeterWord( W );  # the (unique) longest element in W
    [ 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4 ]
    gap> w0 := LongestCoxeterElement( W ); # = EltWord( W, last )
    ( 1,13)( 2,14)( 3,15)( 4,16)( 5,17)( 6,18)( 7,19)( 8,20)( 9,21)
    (10,22)(11,23)(12,24)
    gap> CoxeterLength( W, w0 );
    12
    gap> List( Reflections( W ), i -> CoxeterWord( W, i ) );  
    [ "s", "t", "u", "v", "sus", "tut", "uvu", "stust", "suvus",
      "tuvut", "stuvust", "ustuvustu" ]
    gap> l := List( [1 .. W.N+1], x -> CoxeterElements( W, x-1 ) );; 
    gap> List( l, Length );
    [ 1, 4, 9, 16, 23, 28, 30, 28, 23, 16, 9, 4, 1 ] 

The above line tells us that there is 1 element of length 0, there are 4 elements of length 4, etc.

For many basic functions (like Bruhat, CoxeterLength, etc.) we have chosen the convention that the input is an element of a Coxeter group (rather than a Coxeter word). As a rule of thumb one should keep in mind that for a Coxeter group which is a permutation group, if in some application one has to do a lot of computations with Coxeter group elements then using the low level GAP functions for permutations is usually much faster than manipulating lists of reduced expressions.

Before describing functions applicable to Coxeter groups and Coxeter words we describe functions which make two familiar Coxeter groups that we will use in our examples.

Subsections

  1. CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup
  2. CoxeterGroupHyperoctaedralGroup
  3. CoxeterMatrix
  4. CoxeterGroupByCoxeterMatrix
  5. CartanMatFromCoxeterMatrix
  6. Functions having a special method for general Coxeter groups
  7. IsLeftDescending
  8. FirstLeftDescending
  9. LeftDescentSet
  10. RightDescentSet
  11. EltWord
  12. CoxeterWord
  13. CoxeterLength
  14. ReducedCoxeterWord
  15. BrieskornNormalForm
  16. LongestCoxeterElement
  17. LongestCoxeterWord
  18. CoxeterElements
  19. CoxeterWords
  20. Bruhat
  21. BruhatSmaller
  22. ReducedInRightCoset
  23. ForEachElement

76.1 CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup

CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup( n )

returns the symmetric group on n letters as a Coxeter group. We give the code of this function as it is a good example on how to make a Coxeter group:

CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup := function ( n )
    local  W;
    W := SymmetricGroup( n );
    W.reflections := List( [ 1 .. n - 1 ], i->(i,i + 1) );
    W.operations.IsLeftDescending := function ( W, w, i )
          return i ^ w > (i + 1) ^ w;
      end;
    AbsCoxOps.CompleteCoxeterGroupRecord( W );
    return W;
end;

In the above, we first set the generating reflections of W to be the elementary transpositions (i,i+1) (which are reflections in the natural representation of the symmetric group permuting the standard basis of an n-dimensional vector space), then give the IsLeftDescending function (which just checks if (i,i+1) is an inversion of the permutation). Finally, AbsCoxOps.CompleteCoxeterGroupRecord is a service routine which fills other fields from the ones we gave. We can see what it did by doing:

gap> PrintRec(CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup(3));
rec(
  isDomain                := true,
  isGroup                 := true,
  identity                := (),
  generators              := [ (1,3), (2,3) ],
  operations              := ...,
  isPermGroup             := true,
  isFinite                := true,
  1                       := (1,3),
  2                       := (2,3),
  degree                  := 3,
  reflections             := [ (1,2), (2,3) ],
  nbGeneratingReflections := 2,
  generatingReflections   := [ 1 .. 2 ],
  OrdersGeneratingReflections:= [ 2, 2 ],
  isCoxeterGroup          := true,
  reflectionsLabels       := [ 1 .. 2 ],
  coxeterMat              := [ [ 1, 3 ], [ 3, 1 ] ],
  orbitRepresentative     := [ 1, 1 ],
  longestElm              := (1,3),
  longestCoxeterWord      := [ 1, 2, 1 ],
  N                       := 3 )

We do not indicate all the fields here. Some are there for technical reasons and may change from version to version of CHEVIE. Among the added fields, we see nbGeneratingReflections (taken to be Length(W.reflections) if we do not give it), .OrdersGeneratingReflections, the Coxeter matrix .coxeterMat, a description of conjugacy classes of the generating reflections given in .orbitRepresentative (whose i-th entry is the smallest index of a reflection conjugate to .reflections[i]), .reflectionsLabels (the default labels used for Coxeter word). At the end are 3 fields which are computed only for finite Coxeter groups: the longest element, as an element and as a Coxeter word, and in W.N the number of reflections in W (which is also the length of the longest Coxeter word).

76.2 CoxeterGroupHyperoctaedralGroup

CoxeterGroupHyperoctaedralGroup( n )

returns the hyperoctaedral group of rank n as a Coxeter group. It is given as a permutation group on 2n letters, with Coxeter generators the permutations (i,i+1)(2n+1-i,2n-i) and (n,n+1).

    gap> CoxeterGroupHyperoctaedralGroup(2);
      Group( (2,3), (1,2)(3,4) )

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.3 CoxeterMatrix

CoxeterMatrix( W )

return the Coxeter matrix of the Coxeter group W, that is the matrix whose entry m[i][j] contains the order of gi*gj where gi is the i-th Coxeter generator of W. An infinite order is represented by the entry 0.

    gap> W:=CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup(4);
    Group( (1,4), (2,4), (3,4) )
    gap> CoxeterMatrix(W);
    [ [ 1, 3, 2 ], [ 3, 1, 3 ], [ 2, 3, 1 ] ]

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.4 CoxeterGroupByCoxeterMatrix

CoxeterGroupByCoxeterMatrix( m )

returns the Coxeter group whose Coxeter matrix is m. The group is constructed as a matrix group, using the standard reflection representation for Coxeter groups. This is the representation on a real vector space V of dimension Length(m) defined as follows : if es is a basis of V indexed by the lines of m, we make the s-th reflection act by s(x)=x-2⟨ x, es⟩ es where the scalar product on V defined by ⟨ es,et⟩=-cos(π/m[s,t]) (where by convention π/m[s,t]=0 if m[s,t]=∞, which is represented in CHEVIE by setting m[s,t]:=0). In the example below the affine Weyl group ~ A2 is constructed, and then ~ A1.

    gap> m:=[[1,3,3],[3,1,3],[3,3,1]];;
    gap> W:=CoxeterGroupByCoxeterMatrix(m);
    CoxeterGroupByCoxeterMatrix([ [ 1, 3, 3 ], [ 3, 1, 3 ], [ 3, 3, 1]])
    gap> CoxeterWords(W,3);
    [ [ 1, 3, 2 ], [ 1, 2, 3 ], [ 1, 2, 1 ], [ 1, 3, 1 ], [ 2, 1, 3 ], 
      [ 3, 1, 2 ], [ 2, 3, 2 ], [ 2, 3, 1 ], [ 3, 2, 1 ] ]
    gap> CoxeterGroupByCoxeterMatrix([[1,0],[0,1]]);
    CoxeterGroupByCoxeterMatrix([ [ 1, 0 ], [ 0, 1 ] ])

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.5 CartanMatFromCoxeterMatrix

CartanMatFromCoxeterMatrix( m )

The argument is a CoxeterMatrix for a finite Coxeter group W and the result is a Cartan Matrix for the standard reflection representation of W. Its diagonal terms are 2 and the coefficient between two generating reflections s and t is -2cos(π/m[s,t]) (where by convention π/m[s,t]=0 if m[s,t]=∞, which is represented in CHEVIE by setting m[s,t]:=0).

   gap> m:=[[1,3],[3,1]];
   [ [ 1, 3 ], [ 3, 1 ] ]
   gap> CartanMatFromCoxeterMatrix(m);
   [ [ 2, -1 ], [ -1, 2 ] ]

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.6 Functions having a special method for general Coxeter groups

Some functions take advantage of the fact a group is a Coxeter group to use a better algorithm. A typical example is:

Elements(W)

For finite Coxeter groups, uses a recursive algorithm based on the construction of elements of a chain of parabolic subgroups

ReflectionSubgroup(W, J)

When I is a subset of [1..W.nbGeneratingReflections] then the reflection subgroup of W generated by W.reflections{I} can be generated abstractly (without any specific knowledge about the representation of W) as a Coxeter group. This is what this routine does: implement a special case of ReflectionSubgroup which works for arbitrary Coxeter groups (see ReflectionSubgroup). The actual argument J should be reflection labels for W, i.e. be a subset of W.reflectionsLabels.

Similarly, the functions ReducedRightCosetRepresentatives, PermCosetsSubgroup, work for reflection subgroups of the above form. See the chapter on reflection subgroups for a description of these functions.

CartanMat(W)

Returns CartanMatFromCoxeterMatrix(CoxeterMatrix(W)) (see CartanMatFromCoxeterMatrix).

The functions ReflectionType, ReflectionName and all functions depending on the classification of finite Coxeter groups work for finite Coxeter groups. See the chapter on reflection groups for a description of these functions.

These functions require the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.7 IsLeftDescending

IsLeftDescending( W , w, i )

returns true if and only if the i-th generating reflection W.reflections[i] is in the left descent set of the element w of W.

     gap> W:=CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup(3);
     Group( (1,3), (2,3) )
     gap> IsLeftDescending(W,(1,2),1);
     true

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.8 FirstLeftDescending

FirstLeftDescending( W , w )

returns the index in the list of generating reflections of W of the first element of the left descent set of the element w of W (i.e., the first i such that if s=W.reflections[i] then l(sw)<l(w)). It is quite important to think of using this function rather than write a loop like First([1..W.nbGeneratingReflections],IsLeftDescending), since for particular classes of groups (e.g. finite Coxeter groups) the function is much optimized compared to such a loop.

     gap> W:=CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup(3);
     Group( (1,3), (2,3) )
     gap> FirstLeftDescending(W,(2,3));
     2

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.9 LeftDescentSet

LeftDescentSet( W, w )

The set of generators s such that l(sw)<l(w), given as a list of labels for the corresponding generating reflections.

    gap> W:=CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup(3);
     Group( (1,3), (2,3) )
    gap> LeftDescentSet( W, (1,3));
    [ 1, 2 ] 

See also RightDescentSet.

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.10 RightDescentSet

RightDescentSet( W, w )

The set of generators s such that l(ws)< l(w), given as a list of labels for the corresponding generating reflections.

    gap> W := CoxeterGroup( "A", 2 );;
    gap> w := EltWord( W, [ 1, 2 ] );;
    gap> RightDescentSet( W, w );
    [ 2 ] 

See also LeftDescentSet.

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.11 EltWord

EltWord( W , w )

returns the element of W which corresponds to the Coxeter word w. Thus it returns a permutation if W is a permutation group (the usual case for finite Coxeter groups) and a matrix for matrix groups (such as affine Coxeter groups).

    gap> W:=CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup(4);
    Group( (1,4), (2,4), (3,4) )
    gap> EltWord(W,[1,2,3]);              
    (1,4,3,2)

See also CoxeterWord.

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.12 CoxeterWord

CoxeterWord( W , w )

returns a reduced word in the standard generators of the Coxeter group W for the element w (represented as the GAP list of the corresponding reflection labels).

    gap> W := CoxeterGroup( "A", 3 );;
    gap> w := ( 1,11)( 3,10)( 4, 9)( 5, 7)( 6,12);; 
    gap> w in W;
    true
    gap> CoxeterWord( W, w );
    [ 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 ] 

The result of CoxeterWord is the lexicographically smallest reduced word for w (for the ordering of the Coxeter generators given by W.reflections).

See also EltWord and ReducedCoxeterWord.

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.13 CoxeterLength

CoxeterLength( W , w )

returns the length of the element w of W as a reduced expression in the standard generators.

    gap> W := CoxeterGroup( "F", 4 );;
    gap> p := EltWord( W, [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 2 ] );
    ( 1,44,38,25,20,14)( 2, 5,40,47,48,35)( 3, 7,13,21,19,15)
    ( 4, 6,12,28,30,36)( 8,34,41,32,10,17)( 9,18)(11,26,29,16,23,24)
    (27,31,37,45,43,39)(33,42)
    gap> CoxeterLength( W, p );
    5
    gap> CoxeterWord( W, p );
    [ 1, 2, 3, 2, 4 ] 

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.14 ReducedCoxeterWord

ReducedCoxeterWord( W , w )

returns a reduced expression for an element of the Coxeter group W, which is given as a GAP list of reflection labels for the standard generators of W.

    gap> W := CoxeterGroup( "E", 6 );;
    gap> ReducedCoxeterWord( W, [ 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 ] );
    [ 1, 2, 3 ] 

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.15 BrieskornNormalForm

BrieskornNormalForm( W , w )

Brieskorn Bri71 has noticed that if L(w) is the left descent set of w (see LeftDescentSet), and if wL(w) is the longest Coxeter element (see LongestCoxeterElement) of the reflection subgroup WL(w) (not that this element is an involution), then wL(w) divides w, in the sense that l(wL(w))+l(wL(w)-1w)=l(w). We can now divide w by wL(w) and continue this process with the quotient. In this way, we obtain a reduced expression w=wL1 ... wLr where Li=L(wLi ... wLr) for all i, which we call the Brieskorn normal form of w. The function BrieskornNormalForm will return a description of this form, by returning the list of sets L(w) which describe the above decomposition.

     gap> W:=CoxeterGroup("E",8);
     CoxeterGroup("E",8)
     gap> w:=[ 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 2, 3, 4,
     >   5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ];;
     gap> BrieskornNormalForm(W,EltWord(W,w));
         [ [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ], [ 8 ] ]
     gap> EltWord(W,w)=Product(last,x->
     >  LongestCoxeterElement(ReflectionSubgroup(W,x)));
     true

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.16 LongestCoxeterElement

LongestCoxeterElement( W )

If W is finite, returns the unique element of maximal length of the Coxeter group W. May loop infinitely otherwise.

    gap> LongestCoxeterElement( CoxeterGroup( "A", 4 ) );
    ( 1,14)( 2,13)( 3,12)( 4,11)( 5,17)( 6,16)( 7,15)( 8,19)( 9,18)
    (10,20) 

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.17 LongestCoxeterWord

LongestCoxeterWord( W )

If W is finite, returns a reduced expression in the standard generators for the unique element of maximal length of the Coxeter group W. May loop infinitely otherwise.

    gap> LongestCoxeterWord( CoxeterGroup( "A", 4 ) );
    [ 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 4, 3, 2, 1 ] 

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.18 CoxeterElements

CoxeterElements( W, l )

returns the list of all elements of W of Coxeter length l.

    gap> W := CoxeterGroup( "G", 2 );;
    gap> e := CoxeterElements( W, 6 );
    [ ( 1, 7)( 2, 8)( 3, 9)( 4,10)( 5,11)( 6,12) ]
    gap> e[1] = LongestCoxeterElement( W );
    true 

After the call to CoxeterElements(W,l), the list of elements of W of length l is stored in the component elts[l+1] of the record of W. Thus W.elts[lw+1] contains the list of all elements of length lw in W. There are a number of programs (like criticalPairs, see Chapter Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials and bases) which refer to the ordering of the elements in these lists in W.elts.

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.19 CoxeterWords

CoxeterWords( W[, l] )

returns the list of all elements in the Coxeter group W. The ordering is the same as that given by concatenating the lists of elements of length 0,1,... obtained by the function CoxeterElements. If the second argument is specified, only elements of length l are returned (this is the only form of the call which makes sense for infinite Coxeter groups).

    gap> CoxeterWords( CoxeterGroup( "G", 2 ) );
    [ [  ], [ 2 ], [ 1 ], [ 2, 1 ], [ 1, 2 ], [ 2, 1, 2 ], [ 1, 2, 1 ], 
      [ 2, 1, 2, 1 ], [ 1, 2, 1, 2 ], [ 2, 1, 2, 1, 2 ], 
      [ 1, 2, 1, 2, 1 ], [ 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2 ] ] 

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.20 Bruhat

Bruhat( W, y, w[, ly, lw] )

returns true, if the element y is less than or equal to the element w of the Coxeter group W for the Bruhat order, and false otherwise (y is less than w if a reduced expression for y can be extracted from one for w). The optional arguments ly, lw can contain the Coxeter length of the elements y and w. (In a computation with many calls to Bruhat this may speed up the computation considerably.) See Hum90, (5.9) and (5.10) for properties of the Bruhat order.

    gap> W := CoxeterGroup( "H", 3 );;
    gap> w := EltWord( W, [ 1, 2, 1, 3 ] );;
    gap> b := Filtered( Elements( W ), i -> Bruhat( W, i, w, 
    >                                 CoxeterLength( W, i ), 4 ) );;
    gap> List( b, x -> CoxeterWord( W, x ) );
    [ [  ], [ 3 ], [ 2 ], [ 2, 1 ], [ 2, 3 ], [ 2, 1, 3 ], [ 1 ], 
      [ 1, 3 ], [ 1, 2 ], [ 1, 2, 1 ], [ 1, 2, 3 ], [ 1, 2, 1, 3 ] ] 

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.21 BruhatSmaller

BruhatSmaller( W, w)

Returns a list whose i-th element is the list of elements of W smaller for the Bruhat order that w and of Length i-1. Thus the first element of the returned list contains only W.identity and the CoxeterLength(W,w)-th element contains only w.

    gap> W:=CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup(3);
    Group( (1,3), (2,3) )
    gap> BruhatSmaller(W,(1,3));
    [ [ () ], [ (2,3), (1,2) ], [ (1,2,3), (1,3,2) ], [ (1,3) ] ]

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.22 ReducedInRightCoset

ReducedInRightCoset( W, w)

Let w be an element of a parent group of W whose action by conjugation induces an automorphism of Coxeter groups on W, that is sends the Coxeter generators of W to a conjugate set (but may not send the tuple of generators to a conjugate tuple). ReducedInRightCoset returns the unique element in the right coset W.w which is W-reduced, that is which preserves the set of Coxeter generators of W.

    gap> W:=CoxeterGroupSymmetricGroup(6);
    Group( (1,6), (2,6), (3,6), (4,6), (5,6) )
    gap> H:=ReflectionSubgroup(W,[2..4]);
    Subgroup( Group( (1,6), (2,6), (3,6), (4,6), (5,6) ),
    [ (2,3), (3,4), (4,5) ] )
    gap> ReducedInRightCoset(H,(1,6)(2,4)(3,5));
    (1,6)

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

76.23 ForEachElement

ForEachElement( W, f)

This functions calls f(x) for each element x of the Coxeter group W. It is quite useful when the Size of W would make impossible to call Elements(W). For example,

    gap>i:=0;;
    gap>W:=CoxeterGroup("E",8);;
    gap>ForEachElement(W,function(x)i:=i+1; 
    > if i mod 1000000=0 then Print("*\c");fi;
    > end); 

prints a * about every 10 seconds on a 1Ghz computer, so takes about two hours to enumerate the whole group E8.

This function requires the package "chevie" (see RequirePackage).

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GAP 3.4.4
April 1997