Associated to every reflection group, we construct a lattice of quotients of its braid monoid-algebra, which we term nil-Hecke algebras, obtained by killing all “sufficiently long” braid words, as well as some integer power of each generator. These include usual nil-Coxeter algebras, nil-Temperley-Lieb algebras, and their variants, and lead to symmetric semigroup module categories which necessarily cannot be monoidal.

Motivated by the classical work of Coxeter (1957) and the Broue-Malle-Rouquier freeness conjecture, and continuing beyond the previous work of Khare, we attempt to obtain a classification of the finite-dimensional nil-Hecke algebras for all reflection groups $W$. These include the usual nil-Coxeter algebras for $W$ of finite type, their “fully commutative” analogues for $W$ of FC-finite type, three exceptional algebras (of types $F_4$,$H_3$,$H_4$), and three exceptional series (of types $B_n$ and $A_n$, two of them novel). We further uncover combinatorial bases of algebras, both known (fully commutative elements) and novel ($\overline{12}$-avoiding signed permutations), and classify the Frobenius nil-Hecke algebras in the aforementioned cases. (Joint with Apoorva Khare.)