Distance regularity in buildings and structure constants in Hecke algebras

TL;DR

This paper introduces a generalized concept of distance regularity in buildings, deriving explicit formulas for sphere cardinalities and exploring their algebraic implications, including connections to Hecke algebras and applications in group theory.

Contribution

It defines generalized spheres in buildings, establishes a notion of distance regularity, and links these structures to Hecke algebras, providing new combinatorial and algebraic insights.

Findings

Explicit formulas for sphere cardinalities in buildings

Isomorphisms between Hecke algebras and parabolic Hecke algebras

Applications to non-negativity and commutativity in algebraic structures

Abstract

In this paper we define generalised spheres in buildings using the simplicial structure and Weyl distance in the building, and we derive an explicit formula for the cardinality of these spheres. We prove a generalised notion of distance regularity in buildings, and develop a combinatorial formula for the cardinalities of intersections of generalised spheres. Motivated by the classical study of algebras associated to distance regular graphs we investigate the algebras and modules of Hecke operators arising from our generalised distance regularity, and prove isomorphisms between these algebras and more well known parabolic Hecke algebras. We conclude with applications of our main results to non-negativity of structure constants in parabolic Hecke algebras, commutativity of algebras of Hecke operators, double coset combinatorics in groups with $BN$-pairs, and random walks on the simplices of buildings.