Project IV (MATH4072) 2016-2017


Coxeter groups

Pavel Tumarkin

Description

Coxeter groups appear unexpectedly in many very distant domains of mathematics, as well as in physics, biology and even geology. Some of them can be viewed as symmetry groups of regular polytopes (e.g. Platonic solids). In general, any Coxeter group can be presented as a group generated by reflections in an appropriate vector space.

After an introduction to the subject you will be able to look at several different aspects of Coxeter groups, namely algebraic, combinatorial and geometric, and to play with some related objects (Coxeter diagrams, Davis complex, etc).

Prerequisites

A bit of group theory and linear algebra only is needed for the introduction, but for further work the courses in algebra and topology are essential. Geometry and algebraic topology (as co-requisites) are also a great plus.

Resources

The main source for the introduction will be the book "Reflection Groups and Coxeter Groups" by J.E. Humphreys.

You can also look at the notes "Coxeter groups" by A.M. Cohen.

A more advanced book "Geometry and Topology of Coxeter groups" by M.W. Davis will be used later (here is the library link to a paper version).

Wikipedia article on Coxeter groups.

Basics on geometric reflection groups can be found in the book "Geometry II" by E. Vinberg (ed.)

Further sources can be found here

email: Pavel Tumarkin