Rationally smooth elements of Coxeter groups and triangle group avoidance

Abstract

We study a family of infinite-type Coxeter groups defined by the avoidance of certain rank 3 parabolic subgroups. For this family, rationally smooth elements can be detected by looking at only a few coefficients of the Poincar\'{e} polynomial. We also prove a factorization theorem for the Poincar\'{e} polynomial of rationally smooth elements. As an application, we show that a large class of infinite-type Coxeter groups have only finitely many rationally smooth elements. Explicit enumerations and descriptions of these elements are given in special cases.