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The all-right triangle must be filled; the disconnected universal-Coxeter nerve is CAT(1) vacuously
Example
(i) The all-right triangle is filled. Let be the Coxeter system with and for all distinct , so that is finite, and let be its nerve (The Coxeter nerve and its Moussong metric). Every pair is spherical with positive definite, so all three edges of exist with length ; and itself is spherical with positive definite (Finiteness criterion: W is finite exactly when the Coxeter form is positive definite). Thus is the filled all-right spherical triangle , a single -simplex (Gram realisations, radial normalisation, finite spherical complexes and link Gram formulas(i)-(ii)), whose three interior angles are by the spherical cosine rule. Its boundary 3-cycle has perimeter , but it is not an isometrically embedded circle: the loop is not locally geodesic at the corners, since the segment of the convex triangle between two nearby boundary points across a corner is strictly shorter than the boundary arc through the corner (Gram realisations, radial normalisation, finite spherical complexes and link Gram formulas(ii)).
(ii) The disconnected universal-Coxeter nerve is CAT(1) vacuously. Let be the Coxeter system with and for all , so that is the free product of three copies of (Coxeter matrices, the presented Coxeter group, reduced words, length, and standard parabolic subgroups); let be its nerve. No two-element subset is spherical — the infinite dihedral group is infinite — so has no edges and no simplices beyond its three vertices; with the truncated angular metric (The angular path metric, the Euclidean cone and spherical joins(2)) distinct vertices are at distance . Hence has no pair of distinct points at distance , and every triangle of perimeter is constant — any triangle with two distinct vertices has a side of length and perimeter — so it is vacuously -geodesic and CAT(1); equivalently, its components are three one-point CAT(1) spaces at mutual truncated distance .
(iii) Comparison and girth. Neither nor contains an isometrically embedded circle: this is proved directly for in step 2.3, and is discrete. Thus both have girth , in particular at least . They contrast a filled boundary cycle with a nerve having no edges: for the all-right cosine matrix is positive definite, so the metric flag condition forces the simplex and the would-be boundary cycle of perimeter is filled; for the three vertices are pairwise non-adjacent, the cosine entries of a non-edge are and no set of two or more vertices triggers the metric flag test (indeed every matrix with an off-diagonal is not positive definite). The all-right edges lie at the boundary value of the large hypothesis, where the metric flag test reduces to Gromov's flag test; the value assigned to a non-edge pair of the universal-Coxeter nerve is not an edge length of any large complex.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: The Coxeter systems with and for all distinct , and with and for ; their Coxeter nerves and with the Moussong metric (The Coxeter nerve and its Moussong metric).
The simplices of the nerve are the spherical subsets , carrying the spherical simplices for ; a two-element subset spans an edge exactly when , of length ; face links are the iterated Schur complements; and the complex carries the chain metric and its truncation , whose value between distinct components is . (The Coxeter nerve and its Moussong metric, The angular path metric, the Euclidean cone and spherical joins, Metric space: iff , symmetry, and the triangle inequality; pseudometric and ultrametric)
A finite spherical complex is large when every simplex off-diagonal is at most , and metric flag when for every pairwise adjacent vertex set : spans a simplex exactly when is positive definite; the associated almost-negative matrix assigns the value to a non-edge pair. (Finite large spherical complexes, their almost-negative matrices, the metric flag condition, and links)
A subset of is spherical exactly when is finite, exactly when is positive definite. (Finiteness criterion: W is finite exactly when the Coxeter form is positive definite)
CAT(1) means that pairs at distance are joined by a geodesic segment and that geodesic triangles of perimeter satisfy the spherical comparison; an isometrically embedded circle of length is a subspace isometric to with its circle metric. (Comparison triangles, the CAT(0) and CAT(1) inequalities, local CAT, local geodesics and round circles)
A positive-definite matrix has all principal submatrices positive definite, and a nonzero kernel vector prevents positive definiteness. (Positive and negative definiteness, the inertia , rank , and signature of a real symmetric bilinear or quadratic form, Finite large spherical complexes, their almost-negative matrices, the metric flag condition, and links)
For a positive-definite the realisation is a convex subset of the round sphere: the ambient round distance between two of its points is realized by a great-circle arc lying in it, and its geodesics are the restrictions of the minimal great-circle arcs; its triangles obey the spherical cosine rule ; and for one has , so . (Gram realisations, radial normalisation, finite spherical complexes and link Gram formulas, Comparison triangles in the Euclidean plane and the round sphere, model spaces, and CAT(0) and CAT(1) consequences)
The Coxeter presentation has the involution relation and no relator between distinct generators when . Mapping to the reflection of for respects the presentation; for , is translation by the nonzero integer and has infinite order. Thus each two-generator parabolic is infinite. (Coxeter matrices, the presented Coxeter group, reduced words, length, and standard parabolic subgroups)
A free product is characterized by its universal property for homomorphisms from the factors (The free product of an arbitrary family of groups); the universal property of the Coxeter presentation is that of Coxeter matrices, the presented Coxeter group, reduced words, length, and standard parabolic subgroups.
Verification
Clause (i), the filling. The Coxeter presentation has , and for each distinct pair the relation gives ; thus every word reduces to with . The map sending to the three standard generators of is surjective, so the group has at least eight elements; the word reduction shows it has at most eight, hence . For the all-right system for , so is the identity matrix of size for every , in particular positive definite [F6]; by [F3] every subset is spherical, so the nerve has all three edges of length [F1] and the cell on [F1], and no further cells exist; hence is exactly the filled all-right triangle .
Clause (ii), free product and no edges. Giving a homomorphism from to a group is exactly giving three involutions in , by the universal property of its Coxeter presentation; these are precisely three homomorphisms . Thus has the free-product universal property of three copies of (The free product of an arbitrary family of groups, Coxeter matrices, the presented Coxeter group, reduced words, length, and standard parabolic subgroups). For each two-element subset , [F8] shows that its subgroup contains an element of infinite order, so it is not finite; by [F3] the pair is not spherical and spans no edge of [F1]. Since a cell with two vertices is exactly an edge, the spherical subsets of are and the three singletons, and has no simplex of positive dimension.
Clause (i), the angles. In all three sides equal , and the spherical cosine rule with side opposite the angle between the two sides of length gives , that is and [F7]; the same computation at the other two corners gives three interior angles .
Clause (ii), the metric. The truncation sends the value between distinct components to [F1], and the components of are its three vertices, so distinct vertices of are at truncated distance ; therefore has no pair of distinct points at distance , and a triangle with two distinct vertices has a side of length and perimeter at least , while a triangle with a single vertex has perimeter and satisfies the comparison trivially. Thus all CAT(1) tests of are vacuous and is CAT(1); its components are three one-point CAT(1) spaces at mutual truncated distance .
Clause (iii), the filled triangle has no circle. Since , its Cholesky realization has the standard basis as vertices, so [F7]. For any in this octant, , so their round distance . If , the shorter great-circle segment has points for ; its coefficients are nonnegative, so it stays in the octant. Thus is geodesically convex and its chain metric is the round metric, with diameter at most . If an isometric circle embedded in , its diameter would be at most , so . The two semicircles between opposite points of would give distinct geodesic segments of length in , contradicting uniqueness of the shorter great-circle arc in the round sphere [F7]. Hence contains no isometrically embedded circle.
Clause (i), the boundary loop. Let be the boundary -cycle, of length . Fix a corner and let be the points at distance from it on the two incident edges: their inner product is , so their distance is because is strictly decreasing on and for [F7]; replacing the two boundary subarcs of total length by the geodesic segment of length inside the convex triangle is a strict shortening of near the corner, so is not locally geodesic and hence not an isometrically embedded circle, whose sufficiently short arcs would be minimizing [F5].
Clause (iii), the discrete nerve and the comparison. Since is discrete [step 2.2], every continuous map from the connected space into is constant, so contains no isometrically embedded circle. Together with step 2.3 this proves both girth values are , hence at least . For the comparison: the value of the all-right cosine matrix lies at the boundary of the large hypothesis and makes the metric flag test the ordinary flag test, which fills the triangle of 1.1; the value of a non-edge pair of would make the principal block have the nonzero kernel vector , hence not positive definite [F6], so it is never the cosine of an edge and no set of two or more vertices triggers the metric flag test.
Depends on
- The Coxeter nerve and its Moussong metric
- Finite large spherical complexes, their almost-negative matrices, the metric flag condition, and links
- Comparison triangles, the CAT(0) and CAT(1) inequalities, local CAT, local geodesics and round circles
- The angular path metric, the Euclidean cone and spherical joins
- Metric space: $d(x,y) = 0$ iff $x = y$, symmetry, and the triangle inequality; pseudometric and ultrametric
- Finiteness criterion: W is finite exactly when the Coxeter form is positive definite
- Comparison triangles in the Euclidean plane and the round sphere, model spaces, and CAT(0) and CAT(1) consequences
- Gram realisations, radial normalisation, finite spherical complexes and link Gram formulas
- Coxeter matrices, the presented Coxeter group, reduced words, length, and standard parabolic subgroups
- The free product of an arbitrary family of groups
- Positive and negative definiteness, the inertia $(p,q,r)$, rank $p+q$, and signature $p-q$ of a real symmetric bilinear or quadratic form
Used by
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Sources
- Ruth Charney and Michael W. Davis, The Euler characteristic of a nonpositively curved, piecewise Euclidean manifold, Pacific J. Math. 171 (1995) (standard reference, not scraped)
- Philip Moeller, A note on almost negative matrices and Gromov-hyperbolic Coxeter groups, arXiv:2205.07791 (standard reference, not scraped)
- Michael W. Davis, The Geometry and Topology of Coxeter Groups (first-edition author manuscript, 2007-2008) (standard reference, not scraped)