Maximal Subgroups of the Coxeter Group $W(H_4)$ and Quaternions

Abstract

The largest finite subgroup of O(4) is the noncrystallographic Coxeter group $W(H_{4})$ of order 14400. Its derived subgroup is the largest finite subgroup $W(H_{4})/Z_{2}$ of SO(4) of order 7200. Moreover, up to conjugacy, it has five non-normal maximal subgroups of orders 144, two 240, 400 and 576. Two groups $[ W(H_{2})\times W(H_{2})] \times Z_{4}$ and $W(H_{3})\times Z_{2}$ possess noncrystallographic structures with orders 400 and 240 respectively. The groups of orders 144, 240 and 576 are the extensions of the Weyl groups of the root systems of $SU(3)\times SU(3)$%, SU(5) and SO(8) respectively. We represent the maximal subgroups of $% W(H_{4})$ with sets of quaternion pairs acting on the quaternionic root systems.