Normalizers of parabolic subgroups of Coxeter groups

Abstract

We improve a bound of Borcherds on the virtual cohomological dimension of the nonreflection part of the normalizer of a parabolic subgroup of a Coxeter group. Our bound is in terms of the types of the components of the corresponding Coxeter subdiagram rather than the number of nodes. A consequence is an extension of Brink’s result that the nonreflection part of a reflection centralizer is free. Namely, the nonreflection part of the normalizer of parabolic subgroup of type $D_5$ or $A_{modd}$ is either free or has a free subgroup of index $2$.