Congruence subgroups and crystallographic quotients of small Coxeter groups

Abstract

Small Coxeter groups are precisely the ones for which the Tits representation is integral, which makes the study of their congruence subgroups relevant. The symmetric group S n {S_{n}} has three natural extensions, namely the braid group B n {B_{n}} , the twin group T n {T_{n}} and the triplet group L n {L_{n}} . The latter two groups are small Coxeter groups, and play the role of braid groups under the Alexander–Markov correspondence for appropriate knot theories, with their pure subgroups admitting suitable hyperplane arrangements as Eilenberg-MacLane spaces. In this paper, we prove that the congruence subgroup property fails for infinite small Coxeter groups which are not virtually abelian. As an application, we deduce that the congruence subgroup property fails for both T n {T_{n}} and L n {L_{n}} when n ≥ 4 {n\geq 4} . We also determine subquotients of principal congruence subgroups of T n {T_{n}} , and identify the pure twin group P ⁢ T n {PT_{n}} and the pure triplet group P ⁢ L n {PL_{n}} with suitable principal congruence subgroups. Further, we investigate crystallographic quotients of these two families of small Coxeter groups, and prove that T n / P ⁢ T n ′ {T_{n}/PT_{n}^{\prime}} , T n / T n ′′ {T_{n}/T_{n}^{\prime\prime}} and L n / P ⁢ L n ′ {L_{n}/PL_{n}^{\prime}} are crystallographic groups. We also determine crystallographic dimensions of these groups and identify the holonomy representation of T n / T n ′′ {T_{n}/T_{n}^{\prime\prime}} .

Unrestricted virtual braids and crystallographic braid groups

“…With this equivalence and the results of [GGO17] in mind, it is natural to ask: how are congruence subgroups of braid groups and crystallographic groups related? A question also recently raised in [KNS24] for small Coxeter groups. In this paper we set out on a quest to explore the interplay between congruence subgroups of braid groups and crystallographic groups, opening a number of further questions that we will explore in further work (see for instance [BDOS24].…”