A singular Coxeter presentation

We enlarge a Coxeter group into a category, with one object for each finite parabolic subgroup, encoding the combinatorics of double cosets. This category, the singular Coxeter monoid, is connected to the geometry of partial flag varieties. Our main result is a presentation of this category by generators and relations. We also provide a new description of reduced expressions for double cosets. We describe all the braid relations between such reduced expressions, and prove an analogue of Matsumoto’s theorem. This gives a proper development of ideas first introduced by Geordie Williamson. In type A we also equip the singular Coxeter monoid with a diagrammatic presentation using webs.