DOCSLIB.ORG

REFLECTION GROUPS and COXETER GROUPS by Kouver

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
REFLECTION GROUPS and COXETER GROUPS by Kouver REFLECTION GROUPS AND COXETER GROUPS by Kouver Bingham A Senior Honors Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The University of Utah In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Degree in Bachelor of Science In Department of Mathematics Approved: Mladen Bestviva Dr. Peter Trapa Supervisor Chair, Department of Mathematics ( Jr^FeraSndo Guevara Vasquez Dr. Sylvia D. Torti Department Honors Advisor Dean, Honors College July 2014 ABSTRACT In this paper we give a survey of the theory of Coxeter Groups and Reflection groups. This survey will give an undergraduate reader a full picture of Coxeter Group theory, and will lean slightly heavily on the side of showing examples, although the course of discussion will be based on theory. We’ll begin in Chapter 1 with a discussion of its origins and basic examples. These examples will illustrate the importance and prevalence of Coxeter Groups in Mathematics. The first examples given are the symmetric group <7„, and the group of isometries of the ^-dimensional cube. In Chapter 2 we’ll formulate a general notion of a reflection group in topological space X, and show that such a group is in fact a Coxeter Group. In Chapter 3 we’ll introduce the Poincare Polyhedron Theorem for reflection groups which will vastly expand our understanding of reflection groups thereafter. We’ll also give some surprising examples of Coxeter Groups that section. Then, in Chapter 4 we’ll make a classification of irreducible Coxeter Groups, give a linear representation for an arbitrary Coxeter Group, and use this complete the fact that all Coxeter Groups can be realized as reflection groups with Tit’s Theorem. I . TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 A FIRST EXAMPLE .................................................................... 1 1.2 EXAMPLES WITH REGULAR PO L Y T O PE S....................... 4 2 ABSTRACT REFLECTION GROUP 9 2.1 GENERAL N O T IO N .................................................................... 9 2.2 PROPERTIES OF REFLECTION GROUPS............................. 11 2.3 LABELING, DELETION, AND EXCHANGE ....................... 16 2.4 COXETER GROUPS AND TERMINOLOGY.......................... 21 3 THE POINCARE THEOREM FOR REFLECTION GROUPS 23 3.1 THE T H E O R E M ........................................................................... 23 3.2 EXAM PLES..................................................................................... 24 4 CLASSIFICATION OF COXETER GROUPS 31 4.1 THE LINEAR REPRESENTATION OF A COXETER GROUP 31 4.2 CLASSIFICATION OF COXETER GROUPS .......................... 33 4.3 TITS T H E O R E M ........................................................................... 34 4.4 DISCUSSION................................................................................. 36 5 REFERENCES 37 iii 1 1. INTRODUCTION For two semesters I have had the pleasure and opportunity of studying Coxeter Groups with Professor Mladen Bestvina. Coxeter groups are synonymous with Reflection groups and are an indispensable in group theory and in geometry. Reflection groups have rich historical roots and are crucial to classifying polygonal tessellations of surfaces. Although this project did not venture into this theory, finite reflection groups play a significant role in the classification of Lie Groups and Lie Algebras, another important field in mathematics. Coxeter groups are groups with very specific presentations, and encompass a large num­ ber of important groups. This semester in this project we showed that every Coxeter Group is a reflection group and vice versa. We then studied the Poincare Polyhedron theorem, which formulates a precise general criterion for an arbitrary polyhedron to have in order to guarantee that it is the fundamental domain of a discrete group of isometries generated by the reflections of its faces, which can be presented as a Coxeter group. This theorem determines whether it is possible to tessellate a space with a given polyhedron. The orbit of this fundamental domain, under the action of a reflection group, is the tessellation of the space. 1.1. A FIRST EXAMPLE A first example in a first course in group theory is the symmetric group of n elements. This is the set of permutations of n elements, or the set of bijective functions from the set {1,2,...,«} to itself. This group is commonly denoted an, and turns out to be a group generated by reflections (or transpositions). Well consider the example where an acts on W1. The following disscusion of this section is influenced by Chapters 1 and 2 of [8] and will follow its general discussion. A reflection, acting on M", is an isometric involution (a function equal to its own in­ verse), which is identity on a hyperplane flcM ". on acts by isometries on Wl by per­ 2 muting the canonical orthonormal basis {e\,e2 ,.. • •<?«} given any pair of integers (i,j) E { 1 ,2,... ,n}, the corresponding transposition of cn acts on R” as the reflection with the hyperplane fixed points H jj = {(xi,X2, ■ ■ • )Xn) £ |X; Xy} Thus, it is easy to see that also acts on, and preserves, the following subsets of W1. 1. The affine hyperplane En~1 = {{x\,x2 ,...,x n) e W 1 |xi + X2 -\------ h xn — 1} 2. The unit sphere Sn~l — {(xi ,X2 , ■ - ■ ,x„) G M”|xj +x% H------ l-x^ = 1} 3. The intersection En~l f)Sn_1 commonly denoted Sn~2. Case n = 3: In this case there are three transpositions of 03, commonly denoted si = (1,2), s2 — (2,3), and^3 = (3,1). The notation (1,2) signifies the exchange of 1 and 2, and similar for the others. In this case E 2 is the plan ex + ^ + z = 1, normal to the vector (1,1,1) in M3. The plane’s intersection with the positive quadrant is seen in Figure 1. To see the transpositions above as reflections we present E2 in Figure 2; 03 acts as reflections about the three lines seen that divide E2 into chambers, which look like pie slices in the figure. The basis vectors e\,e2 and e$, are seen as points of intersection with the circle in the figure, as well as the points on the plane v = ^(—e\ + 2^2 + 2^3), w = !(2ei + 2e2 — £3), and r = \(2e\ — ^2 + £3)- The divisions of the circle that these lines create are called the chambers of the reflection group. The fundamental chamber is denoted Co in figure 2. All possible locations that Co is sent to by the action of these transpositions, and all products of transpositions, produces all other chambers, as they are labeled in the figure. Note that 53, as it has been defined above, does not occur in the figure. This is because of the simple relation sj = S]S2Si = S2S\S2. 3 Figure 1: Intersection of the plane E2 with the postive quadrant of R3. As we will see in all cases of a general reflection group, <73 acts simply and transitively on these chambers. The lines separating the chambers are commonly called the mirrors of the reflection group. This example shows how these chambers arise naturally in the geometry of the space, which the reflection group acts. This is a general attribute of all reflection groups. In the next section we will introduce some of these general notions of a reflection group. Figure 2: The chambers of E2 on which 03 acts. 4 1.2. EXAMPLES WITH REGULAR POLYTOPES First we’ll cover some basic definitions in order to discuss and realize the symmetry groups of regular polytopes as a reflection groups, and show them to share some properties with symmetric groups. Throughout this section we let V denote an affine Euclidean space of some dimension n > 1. Definition 1.1: A convex polyhedron in V is the intersection of a finite number of closed affine half-spaces. Definition 1.2: A polytope in V is a convex polyhedron Q which has a non-empty interior. Throughout this section we’ll denote the group of all isometries of V by which P is invariant as G(Q). By choosing an origin in V, and let H be any affine hyperplane in V which does not contain the origin, denote H + the closed half-plane of V limited by H and containing the origin. Create a polytope Q containing the origin and define a family of affine hyperplanes {Hs}seS such that e = r K seS Qcf]H+ j£j for some proper subset J C S For brevity (this is merely an example section) we’ll not prove the following facts but refer the reader to [5] for proofs of these and a general discussion, and we’ll simply rely on intuition for the purposes of these examples. Fact 1. The set {Hs}ses is finite and determined by Q. Hsf]Q is a polytope in Hs for each s e S. Definition 1.3: The polytopes Hsf]Q for every s E S are called the faces or the (n — 1)- 5 facettes of Q. Similarly defined are the the {n — 2)~facettes, (n — 3)-facettes, e.t.c. Fact 2. Q is the convex hull of its O-facettes, i.e. it’s vertices. The 1-facettes of Q are it’s edges. Definition 1.4: A flag in Q is a nested sequence Fq C F\ C . ..Fn-\ where each F\ is a fc-facette. The set of all flags of Q is denoted F(Q) There is a nice connection between regular polytopes and the action of G(Q) on the set F(Q), and it is the following. Definition 1.5: A polytope Q is said to be regular if G(Q) acts simply transitively on the set F(Q) of Q, i.e. in this case the cardinality of G(Q) will match that of F(Q). Example 1.1: Let {e\,e2 , ■ ■ ■, en.\ i} to be the standard basis vectors of K'l+1. The poly­ tope defined by the convex hull determined by {ei,e2 ,..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hyperbolic Reflection Groups
    Uspekhi Mat. N auk 40:1 (1985), 29 66 Russian Math. Surveys 40:1 (1985), 31 75 Hyperbolic reflection groups E.B. Vinberg CONTENTS Introduction 31 Chapter I. Acute angled polytopes in Lobachevskii spaces 39 § 1. The G ram matrix of a convex polytope 39 §2. The existence theorem for an acute angled polytope with given Gram 42 matrix §3. Determination of the combinatorial structure of an acute angled 46 polytope from its Gram matrix §4. Criteria for an acute angled polytope to be bounded and to have finite 50 volume Chapter II. Crystallographic reflection groups in Lobachevskii spaces 57 §5. The language of Coxeter schemes. Construction of crystallographic 57 reflection groups §6. The non existence of discrete reflection groups with bounded 67 fundamental polytope in higher dimensional Lobachevskii spaces References 71 Introduction 1. Let X" be the « dimensional Euclidean space Ε", the « dimensional sphere S", or the « dimensional Lobachevskii space Λ". A convex polytope PCX" bounded by hyperplanes //,·, i G / , is said to be a Coxeter polytope if for all /, / G / , i Φ j, the hyperplanes //, and Hj are disjoint or form a dihedral angle of π/rijj, wh e r e «,y G Ζ and η,γ > 2. (We have in mind a dihedral angle containing P.) If Ρ is a Coxeter polytope, then the group Γ of motions of X" generated by the reflections Λ, in the hyperplanes Hj is discrete, and Ρ is a fundamental polytope for it. This means that the polytopes yP, y G Γ, do not have pairwise common interior points and cover X"; that is, they form a tessellation for X".
    [Show full text]
  • On Discrete Generalised Triangle Groups
    Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society (1995) 38, 397-412 © ON DISCRETE GENERALISED TRIANGLE GROUPS by M. HAGELBERG, C. MACLACHLAN and G. ROSENBERGER (Received 29th October 1993) A generalised triangle group has a presentation of the form where R is a cyclically reduced word involving both x and y. When R=xy, these classical triangle groups have representations as discrete groups of isometries of S2, R2, H2 depending on In this paper, for other words R, faithful discrete representations of these groups in Isom + H3 = PSL(2,C) are considered with particular emphasis on the case /? = [x, y] and also on the relationship between the Euler characteristic x and finite covolume representations. 1991 Mathematics subject classification: 20H15. 1. Introduction In this article, we consider generalised triangle groups, i.e. groups F with a presentation of the form where R(x,y) is a cyclically reduced word in the free product on x,y which involves both x and y. These groups have been studied for their group theoretical interest [8, 7, 13], for topological reasons [2], and more recently for their connections with hyperbolic 3-manifolds and orbifolds [12, 10]. Here we will be concerned with faithful discrete representations p:T-*PSL(2,C) with particular emphasis on the cases where the Kleinian group p(F) has finite covolume. In Theorem 3.2, we give necessary conditions on the group F so that it should admit such a faithful discrete representation of finite covolume. For certain generalised triangle groups where the word R(x,y) has a specified form, faithful discrete representations as above have been constructed by Helling-Mennicke- Vinberg [12] and by the first author [11].
    [Show full text]
  • The Magic Square of Reflections and Rotations
    THE MAGIC SQUARE OF REFLECTIONS AND ROTATIONS RAGNAR-OLAF BUCHWEITZ†, ELEONORE FABER, AND COLIN INGALLS Dedicated to the memories of two great geometers, H.M.S. Coxeter and Peter Slodowy ABSTRACT. We show how Coxeter’s work implies a bijection between complex reflection groups of rank two and real reflection groups in O(3). We also consider this magic square of reflections and rotations in the framework of Clifford algebras: we give an interpretation using (s)pin groups and explore these groups in small dimensions. CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2 2. Prelude: the groups 2 3. The Magic Square of Rotations and Reflections 4 Reflections, Take One 4 The Magic Square 4 Historical Note 8 4. Quaternions 10 5. The Clifford Algebra of Euclidean 3–Space 12 6. The Pin Groups for Euclidean 3–Space 13 7. Reflections 15 8. General Clifford algebras 15 Quadratic Spaces 16 Reflections, Take two 17 Clifford Algebras 18 Real Clifford Algebras 23 Cl0,1 23 Cl1,0 24 Cl0,2 24 Cl2,0 25 Cl0,3 25 9. Acknowledgements 25 References 25 Date: October 22, 2018. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 20F55, 15A66, 11E88, 51F15 14E16 . Key words and phrases. Finite reflection groups, Clifford algebras, Quaternions, Pin groups, McKay correspondence. R.-O.B. and C.I. were partially supported by their respective NSERC Discovery grants, and E.F. acknowl- edges support of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 789580. All three authors were supported by the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach through the Leibniz fellowship program in 2017, and E.F and C.I.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:Math/0306105V2
    A bound for the number of automorphisms of an arithmetic Riemann surface BY MIKHAIL BELOLIPETSKY Sobolev Institute of Mathematics, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia e-mail: [email protected] AND GARETH A. JONES Faculty of Mathematical Studies, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ e-mail: [email protected] Abstract We show that for every g ≥ 2 there is a compact arithmetic Riemann surface of genus g with at least 4(g − 1) automorphisms, and that this lower bound is attained by infinitely many genera, the smallest being 24. 1. Introduction Schwarz [17] proved that the automorphism group of a compact Riemann surface of genus g ≥ 2 is finite, and Hurwitz [10] showed that its order is at most 84(g − 1). This bound is sharp, by which we mean that it is attained for infinitely many g, and the least genus of such an extremal surface is 3. However, it is also well known that there are infinitely many genera for which the bound 84(g − 1) is not attained. It therefore makes sense to consider the maximal order N(g) of the group of automorphisms of any Riemann surface of genus g. Accola [1] and Maclachlan [14] independently proved that N(g) ≥ 8(g +1). This bound is also sharp, and according to p. 93 of [2], Paul Hewitt has shown that the least genus attaining it is 23. Thus we have the following sharp bounds for N(g) with g ≥ 2: 8(g + 1) ≤ N(g) ≤ 84(g − 1). arXiv:math/0306105v2 [math.GR] 21 Nov 2004 We now consider these bounds from an arithmetic point of view, defining arithmetic Riemann surfaces to be those which are uniformized by arithmetic Fuchsian groups.
    [Show full text]
  • COXETER GROUPS (Unfinished and Comments Are Welcome)
    COXETER GROUPS (Unfinished and comments are welcome) Gert Heckman Radboud University Nijmegen [email protected] October 10, 2018 1 2 Contents Preface 4 1 Regular Polytopes 7 1.1 ConvexSets............................ 7 1.2 Examples of Regular Polytopes . 12 1.3 Classification of Regular Polytopes . 16 2 Finite Reflection Groups 21 2.1 NormalizedRootSystems . 21 2.2 The Dihedral Normalized Root System . 24 2.3 TheBasisofSimpleRoots. 25 2.4 The Classification of Elliptic Coxeter Diagrams . 27 2.5 TheCoxeterElement. 35 2.6 A Dihedral Subgroup of W ................... 39 2.7 IntegralRootSystems . 42 2.8 The Poincar´eDodecahedral Space . 46 3 Invariant Theory for Reflection Groups 53 3.1 Polynomial Invariant Theory . 53 3.2 TheChevalleyTheorem . 56 3.3 Exponential Invariant Theory . 60 4 Coxeter Groups 65 4.1 Generators and Relations . 65 4.2 TheTitsTheorem ........................ 69 4.3 The Dual Geometric Representation . 74 4.4 The Classification of Some Coxeter Diagrams . 77 4.5 AffineReflectionGroups. 86 4.6 Crystallography. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 92 5 Hyperbolic Reflection Groups 97 5.1 HyperbolicSpace......................... 97 5.2 Hyperbolic Coxeter Groups . 100 5.3 Examples of Hyperbolic Coxeter Diagrams . 108 5.4 Hyperbolic reflection groups . 114 5.5 Lorentzian Lattices . 116 3 6 The Leech Lattice 125 6.1 ModularForms ..........................125 6.2 ATheoremofVenkov . 129 6.3 The Classification of Niemeier Lattices . 132 6.4 The Existence of the Leech Lattice . 133 6.5 ATheoremofConway . 135 6.6 TheCoveringRadiusofΛ . 137 6.7 Uniqueness of the Leech Lattice . 140 4 Preface Finite reflection groups are a central subject in mathematics with a long and rich history. The group of symmetries of a regular m-gon in the plane, that is the convex hull in the complex plane of the mth roots of unity, is the dihedral group of order 2m, which is the simplest example of a reflection Dm group.
    [Show full text]
  • Binary Icosahedral Group and 600-Cell
    Article Binary Icosahedral Group and 600-Cell Jihyun Choi and Jae-Hyouk Lee * Department of Mathematics, Ewha Womans University 52, Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03760, Korea; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +82-2-3277-3346 Received: 10 July 2018; Accepted: 26 July 2018; Published: 7 August 2018 Abstract: In this article, we have an explicit description of the binary isosahedral group as a 600-cell. We introduce a method to construct binary polyhedral groups as a subset of quaternions H via spin map of SO(3). In addition, we show that the binary icosahedral group in H is the set of vertices of a 600-cell by applying the Coxeter–Dynkin diagram of H4. Keywords: binary polyhedral group; icosahedron; dodecahedron; 600-cell MSC: 52B10, 52B11, 52B15 1. Introduction The classification of finite subgroups in SLn(C) derives attention from various research areas in mathematics. Especially when n = 2, it is related to McKay correspondence and ADE singularity theory [1]. The list of finite subgroups of SL2(C) consists of cyclic groups (Zn), binary dihedral groups corresponded to the symmetry group of regular 2n-gons, and binary polyhedral groups related to regular polyhedra. These are related to the classification of regular polyhedrons known as Platonic solids. There are five platonic solids (tetrahedron, cubic, octahedron, dodecahedron, icosahedron), but, as a regular polyhedron and its dual polyhedron are associated with the same symmetry groups, there are only three binary polyhedral groups(binary tetrahedral group 2T, binary octahedral group 2O, binary icosahedral group 2I) related to regular polyhedrons.
    [Show full text]
  • Reflection Groups 3
    Lecture Notes Reflection Groups Dr Dmitriy Rumynin Anna Lena Winstel Autumn Term 2010 Contents 1 Finite Reflection Groups 3 2 Root systems 6 3 Generators and Relations 14 4 Coxeter group 16 5 Geometric representation of W (mij) 21 6 Fundamental chamber 28 7 Classification 34 8 Crystallographic Coxeter groups 43 9 Polynomial invariants 46 10 Fundamental degrees 54 11 Coxeter elements 57 1 Finite Reflection Groups V = (V; h ; i) - Euclidean Vector space where V is a finite dimensional vector space over R and h ; i : V × V −! R is bilinear, symmetric and positiv definit. n n P Example: (R ; ·): h(αi); (βi)i = αiβi i=1 Gram-Schmidt theory tells that for all Euclidean vector spaces, there exists an isometry (linear n bijective and 8 x; y 2 V : T (x) · T (y) = hx; yi) T : V −! R . In (V; h ; i) you can • measure length: jjxjj = phx; xi hx;yi • measure angles: xyc = arccos jjx||·||yjj • talk about orthogonal transformations O(V ) = fT 2 GL(V ): 8 x; y 2 V : hT x; T yi = hx; yig ≤ GL(V ) T 2 GL(V ). Let V T = fv 2 V : T v = vg the fixed points of T or the 1-eigenspace. Definition. T 2 GL(V ) is a reflection if T 2 O(V ) and dim V T = dim V − 1. Lemma 1.1. Let T be a reflection, x 2 (V T )? = fv : 8 w 2 V T : hv; wi = 0g; x 6= 0. Then 1. T (x) = −x hx;zi 2. 8 z 2 V : T (z) = z − 2 hx;xi · x Proof.
    [Show full text]
  • Computing Invariants of Hyperbolic Coxeter Groups
    LMS J. Comput. Math. 18 (1) (2015) 754{773 C 2015 Author doi:10.1112/S1461157015000273 CoxIter { Computing invariants of hyperbolic Coxeter groups R. Guglielmetti Abstract CoxIter is a computer program designed to compute invariants of hyperbolic Coxeter groups. Given such a group, the program determines whether it is cocompact or of finite covolume, whether it is arithmetic in the non-cocompact case, and whether it provides the Euler characteristic and the combinatorial structure of the associated fundamental polyhedron. The aim of this paper is to present the theoretical background for the program. The source code is available online as supplementary material with the published article and on the author's website (http://coxiter.rgug.ch). Supplementarymaterialsareavailablewiththisarticle. Introduction Let Hn be the hyperbolic n-space, and let Isom Hn be the group of isometries of Hn. For a given discrete hyperbolic Coxeter group Γ < Isom Hn and its associated fundamental polyhedron P ⊂ Hn, we are interested in geometrical and combinatorial properties of P . We want to know whether P is compact, has finite volume and, if the answer is yes, what its volume is. We also want to find the combinatorial structure of P , namely, the number of vertices, edges, 2-faces, and so on. Finally, it is interesting to find out whether Γ is arithmetic, that is, if Γ is commensurable to the reflection group of the automorphism group of a quadratic form of signature (n; 1). Most of these questions can be answered by studying finite and affine subgroups of Γ, but this involves a huge number of computations.
    [Show full text]
  • Regular Elements of Finite Reflection Groups
    Inventiones math. 25, 159-198 (1974) by Springer-Veriag 1974 Regular Elements of Finite Reflection Groups T.A. Springer (Utrecht) Introduction If G is a finite reflection group in a finite dimensional vector space V then ve V is called regular if no nonidentity element of G fixes v. An element ge G is regular if it has a regular eigenvector (a familiar example of such an element is a Coxeter element in a Weyl group). The main theme of this paper is the study of the properties and applications of the regular elements. A review of the contents follows. In w 1 we recall some known facts about the invariant theory of finite linear groups. Then we discuss in w2 some, more or less familiar, facts about finite reflection groups and their invariant theory. w3 deals with the problem of finding the eigenvalues of the elements of a given finite linear group G. It turns out that the explicit knowledge of the algebra R of invariants of G implies a solution to this problem. If G is a reflection group, R has a very simple structure, which enables one to obtain precise results about the eigenvalues and their multiplicities (see 3.4). These results are established by using some standard facts from algebraic geometry. They can also be used to give a proof of the formula for the order of finite Chevalley groups. We shall not go into this here. In the case of eigenvalues of regular elements one can go further, this is discussed in w4. One obtains, for example, a formula for the order of the centralizer of a regular element (see 4.2) and a formula for the eigenvalues of a regular element in an irreducible representation (see 4.5).
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:1012.2020V1 [Math.CV]
    TRANSITIVITY ON WEIERSTRASS POINTS ZOË LAING AND DAVID SINGERMAN 1. Introduction An automorphism of a Riemann surface will preserve its set of Weier- strass points. In this paper, we search for Riemann surfaces whose automorphism groups act transitively on the Weierstrass points. One well-known example is Klein’s quartic, which is known to have 24 Weierstrass points permuted transitively by it’s automorphism group, PSL(2, 7) of order 168. An investigation of when Hurwitz groups act transitively has been made by Magaard and Völklein [19]. After a section on the preliminaries, we examine the transitivity property on several classes of surfaces. The easiest case is when the surface is hy- perelliptic, and we find all hyperelliptic surfaces with the transitivity property (there are infinitely many of them). We then consider surfaces with automorphism group PSL(2, q), Weierstrass points of weight 1, and other classes of Riemann surfaces, ending with Fermat curves. Basically, we find that the transitivity property property seems quite rare and that the surfaces we have found with this property are inter- esting for other reasons too. 2. Preliminaries Weierstrass Gap Theorem ([6]). Let X be a compact Riemann sur- face of genus g. Then for each point p ∈ X there are precisely g integers 1 = γ1 < γ2 <...<γg < 2g such that there is no meromor- arXiv:1012.2020v1 [math.CV] 9 Dec 2010 phic function on X whose only pole is one of order γj at p and which is analytic elsewhere. The integers γ1,...,γg are called the gaps at p. The complement of the gaps at p in the natural numbers are called the non-gaps at p.
    [Show full text]
  • Petrie Schemes
    Canad. J. Math. Vol. 57 (4), 2005 pp. 844–870 Petrie Schemes Gordon Williams Abstract. Petrie polygons, especially as they arise in the study of regular polytopes and Coxeter groups, have been studied by geometers and group theorists since the early part of the twentieth century. An open question is the determination of which polyhedra possess Petrie polygons that are simple closed curves. The current work explores combinatorial structures in abstract polytopes, called Petrie schemes, that generalize the notion of a Petrie polygon. It is established that all of the regular convex polytopes and honeycombs in Euclidean spaces, as well as all of the Grunbaum–Dress¨ polyhedra, pos- sess Petrie schemes that are not self-intersecting and thus have Petrie polygons that are simple closed curves. Partial results are obtained for several other classes of less symmetric polytopes. 1 Introduction Historically, polyhedra have been conceived of either as closed surfaces (usually topo- logical spheres) made up of planar polygons joined edge to edge or as solids enclosed by such a surface. In recent times, mathematicians have considered polyhedra to be convex polytopes, simplicial spheres, or combinatorial structures such as abstract polytopes or incidence complexes. A Petrie polygon of a polyhedron is a sequence of edges of the polyhedron where any two consecutive elements of the sequence have a vertex and face in common, but no three consecutive edges share a commonface. For the regular polyhedra, the Petrie polygons form the equatorial skew polygons. Petrie polygons may be defined analogously for polytopes as well. Petrie polygons have been very useful in the study of polyhedra and polytopes, especially regular polytopes.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:1705.01294V1
    Branes and Polytopes Luca Romano email address: [email protected] ABSTRACT We investigate the hierarchies of half-supersymmetric branes in maximal supergravity theories. By studying the action of the Weyl group of the U-duality group of maximal supergravities we discover a set of universal algebraic rules describing the number of independent 1/2-BPS p-branes, rank by rank, in any dimension. We show that these relations describe the symmetries of certain families of uniform polytopes. This induces a correspondence between half-supersymmetric branes and vertices of opportune uniform polytopes. We show that half-supersymmetric 0-, 1- and 2-branes are in correspondence with the vertices of the k21, 2k1 and 1k2 families of uniform polytopes, respectively, while 3-branes correspond to the vertices of the rectified version of the 2k1 family. For 4-branes and higher rank solutions we find a general behavior. The interpretation of half- supersymmetric solutions as vertices of uniform polytopes reveals some intriguing aspects. One of the most relevant is a triality relation between 0-, 1- and 2-branes. arXiv:1705.01294v1 [hep-th] 3 May 2017 Contents Introduction 2 1 Coxeter Group and Weyl Group 3 1.1 WeylGroup........................................ 6 2 Branes in E11 7 3 Algebraic Structures Behind Half-Supersymmetric Branes 12 4 Branes ad Polytopes 15 Conclusions 27 A Polytopes 30 B Petrie Polygons 30 1 Introduction Since their discovery branes gained a prominent role in the analysis of M-theories and du- alities [1]. One of the most important class of branes consists in Dirichlet branes, or D-branes. D-branes appear in string theory as boundary terms for open strings with mixed Dirichlet-Neumann boundary conditions and, due to their tension, scaling with a negative power of the string cou- pling constant, they are non-perturbative objects [2].
    [Show full text]