Symmetric group on a finite set is a Coxeter group

From Groupprops

This article states and proves a fact about a particular group, or kind of group, (i.e., Symmetric group (?)) having a particular presentation (or kind of presentation), i.e., where the generic name for such presentations or groups having such presentations is: Coxeter presentation (?)
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Statement

Suppose n is a nonnegative integer and G is the symmetric group on the set {1,2,3,,n+1}. Then, G is isomorphic to a Coxeter group with n generators si,1in, where mi(i+1)=3 and mij=2 for i and j differing by more than one.

In other words:

Gsisi2=1,(sisi+1)3=1,(sisj)2=1|ij|>1.

The isomorphism identifies si with the transposition (i,i+1).

Facts used

  1. Transpositions of adjacent elements generate the symmetric group on a finite set

Proof

The Coxeter group described admits a surjective homomorphism to the symmetric group

Consider a map:

sisi2=1,(sisi+1)3=1,(sisj)2=1|ij|>1G

given by:

si(i,i+1).

To check that the map is well-defined, we need to check that all the Coxeter relations are satisfied by the images of the si. This is direct: the square of any transposition is the identity element, the product of two adjacent transpositions has order three, and the product of two disjoint transpositions has order two.

Next, the map is surjective because by fact (1), elements of the form (i,i+1) generate G.

The size of the Coxeter group is at most (n+1)!

Let Cn be the Coxeter group for n letters.

First observe that the subgroup H of Cn generated by s1,s2,,sn1 satisfies all the relations for the Coxeter group for n1 generators, hence is a homomorphic image of Cn1. Hence, by induction, |H||Cn1|n!.

We now show that H has at most n+1 left cosets in Cn. In fact, we can show that the every left coset of H in Cn has a representative among these:

s1s2sn,s2sn,s3sn,sn1sn,sn.

To do so, we use the fact that every word in s1,,sn can be written with sn appearing at most once (using relations in the Coxeter group). Therefore, for σCn we have σH=ω1ωksnδH where ωisn and δ=0 or 1. The relation (sisj)2=1|ij|>1 then allows us to conclude that σH=sisi+1sn1snδH.

Thus, [Cn:H]n+1. Using Lagrange's theorem, we get |Cn|=|H|[Cn:H](n+1)n!=(n+1)!.