Reflection Groups and Coxeter Groups

In this graduate textbook Professor Humphreys presents a concrete and up-to-date introduction to the theory of Coxeter groups. He assumes that the reader has a good knowledge of algebra, but otherwise the book is self contained. The first part is devoted to establishing concrete examples; the author begins by developing the most important facts about finite reflection groups and related geometry, and showing that such groups have a Coxeter representation. In the next chapter these groups are classified by Coxeter diagrams, and actual realizations of these groups are discussed. Chapter 3 discusses the polynomial invariants of finite reflection groups, and the first part ends with a description of the affine Weyl groups and the way they arise in Lie theory. The second part (which is logically independent of, but motivated by, the first) starts by developing the properties of the Coxeter groups. Chapter 6 shows how earlier examples and others fit into the general classification of Coxeter diagrams. Chapter 7 is based on the very important work of Kazhdan and Lusztig and the last chapter presents a number of miscellaneous topics of a combinatorial nature.

Author Biography

James E. Humphreys was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and received his A.B. from Oberlin College, 1961, and his Ph.D. from Yale University, 1966. He has taught at the University of Oregon, Courant Institute (NYU), and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (now retired). He visits IAS Princeton, Rutgers. He is the author of several graduate texts and monographs.