Combinatorial structures that compose and decompose give rise to Hopf monoids in Joyal's category of species. The Hadamard product of two Hopf monoids is another Hopf monoid. We prove two main results regarding freeness of Hadamard products. The first one states that if one factor is connected and the other is free as a monoid, their Hadamard product is free (and connected). The second provides an explicit basis for the Hadamard product when both factors are free. The first main result is obtained by showing the existence of a one-parameter deformation of the comonoid structure and appealing to a rigidity result of Loday and Ronco that applies when the parameter is set to zero. To obtain the second result, we introduce an operation on species that is intertwined by the free monoid functor with the Hadamard product. As an application of the first result, we deduce that the Boolean transform of the dimension sequence of a connected Hopf monoid is nonnegative.

Due to work of W. Parry it is known that the growth rate of a hyperbolic Coxeter group acting cocompactly on ${\mathbb H^3}$ is a Salem number. This being the arithmetic situation, we prove that the simplex group (3,5,3) has smallest growth rate among all cocompact hyperbolic Coxeter groups, and that it is as such unique. Our approach provides a different proof for the analog situation in ${\mathbb H^2}$ where E. Hironaka identified Lehmer's number as the minimal growth rate among all cocompact planar hyperbolic Coxeter groups and showed that it is (uniquely) achieved by the Coxeter triangle group (3,7).

W. Casselman defined a basis $f_u$ of Iwahori fixed vectors of a spherical representation $(\pi, V)$ of a split semisimple $p$-adic group $G$ over a nonarchimedean local field $F$ by the condition that it be dual to the intertwining operators, indexed by elements $u$ of the Weyl group $W$. On the other hand, there is a natural basis $\psi_u$, and one seeks to find the transition matrices between the two bases. Thus, let $f_u = \sum_v \tilde{m} (u, v) \psi_v$ and $\psi_u = \sum_v m (u, v) f_v$. Using the Iwahori-Hecke algebra we prove that if a combinatorial condition is satisfied, then $m (u, v) = \prod_{\alpha} \frac{1 - q^{- 1} \mathbf{z}^{\alpha}}{1 -\mathbf{z}^{\alpha}}$, where $\mathbf z$ are the Langlands parameters for the representation and $\alpha$ runs through the set $S (u, v)$ of positive coroots $\alpha \in \hat{\Phi}$ (the dual root system of $G$) such that $u \leqslant v r_{\alpha} < v$ with $r_{\alpha}$ the reflection corresponding to $\alpha$. The condition is conjecturally always satisfied if $G$ is simply-laced and the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial $P_{w_0 v, w_0 u} = 1$ with $w_0$ the long Weyl group element. There is a similar formula for $\tilde{m}$ conjecturally satisfied if $P_{u, v} = 1$. This leads to various combinatorial conjectures.

Given a complete CAT(0) space $X$ endowed with a geometric action of a group $\Gamma$, it is known that if $\Gamma$ contains a free abelian group of rank $n$, then $X$ contains a geometric flat of dimension $n$. We prove the converse of this statement in the special case where $X$ is a convex subcomplex of the CAT(0) realization of a Coxeter group $W$, and $\Gamma$ is a subgroup of $W$. In particular a convex cocompact subgroup of a Coxeter group is Gromov-hyperbolic if and only if it does not contain a free abelian group of rank 2. Our result also provides an explicit control on geometric flats in the CAT(0) realization of arbitrary Tits buildings.

Monotone paths on zonotopes and the natural generalization to maximal chains in the poset of topes of an oriented matroid or arrangement of pseudo-hyperplanes are studied with respect to a kind of local move, called polygon move or flip. It is proved that any monotone path on a $d$-dimensional zonotope with $n$ generators admits at least $\lceil 2n/(n-d+2) \rceil-1$ flips for all $n \ge d+2 \ge 4$ and that for any fixed value of $n-d$, this lower bound is sharp for infinitely many values of $n$. In particular, monotone paths on zonotopes which admit only three flips are constructed in each dimension $d \ge 3$. Furthermore, the previously known 2-connectivity of the graph of monotone paths on a polytope is extended to the 2-connectivity of the graph of maximal chains of topes of an oriented matroid. An application in the context of Coxeter groups of a result known to be valid for monotone paths on simple zonotopes is included.

Matrices whose entries belong to certain rings of algebraic integers can be associated with discrete groups of transformations of inversive $n$-space or hyperbolic $(n+1)$-space $\mbox{H}^{n+1}$. For small $n$, these may be Coxeter groups, generated by reflections, or certain subgroups whose generators include direct isometries of $\mbox{H}^{n+1}$. We show how linear fractional transformations over rings of rational and (real or imaginary) quadratic integers are related to the symmetry groups of regular tilings of the hyperbolic plane or 3-space. New light is shed on the properties of the rational modular group $\PSL_2 (\bbZ)$, the Gaussian modular (Picard) group $\PSL_2 (\bbZ[{\it i}])$, and the Eisenstein modular group $\PSL_2 (\bbZ[\omega ])$.

We determine and completely describe all pure realizations of the finite regular toroidal polyhedra of types $\{3,6\}$ and $\{6,3\}$.

Let $G$ be a finite group generated by (pseudo-) reflections in a complex vector space and let $g$ be any linear transformation which normalises $G$. In an earlier paper, the authors showed how to associate with any maximal eigenspace of an element of the coset $gG$, a subquotient of $G$ which acts as a reflection group on the eigenspace. In this work, we address the questions of irreducibility and the coexponents of this subquotient, as well as centralisers in $G$ of certain elements of the coset. A criterion is also given in terms of the invariant degrees of $G$ for an integer to be regular for $G$. A key tool is the investigation of extensions of invariant vector fields on the eigenspace, which leads to some results and questions concerning the geometry of intersections of invariant hypersurfaces.

We continue in this paper our study of conjugacy classes of a reductive monoid $M$. The main theorems establish a strong connection with the Bruhat-Renner decomposition of $M$. We use our results to decompose the variety $M_{\nil}$ of nilpotent elements of $M$ into irreducible components. We also identify a class of nilpotent elements that we call standard and prove that the number of conjugacy classes of standard nilpotent elements is always finite.