Journal of Lie Theory

Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system and $\ast$ be an automorphism of $W$ with order $\leq 2$ such that $s^{\ast}\in S$ for any $s\in S$. Let $I_{\ast}$ be the set of twisted involutions relative to $\ast$ in $W$. In this paper we consider the case when $\ast={\rm id}$ and study the braid $I_\ast$-transformations between the reduced $I_\ast$-expressions of involutions. If $W$ is the Weyl group of type $B_n$ or $D_n$, we explicitly describe a finite set of basic braid $I_\ast$-transformations for all $n$ simultaneously, and show that any two reduced $I_\ast$-expressions for a given involution can be transformed into each other through a series of basic braid $I_\ast$-transformations. In both cases, these basic braid $I_\ast$-transformations consist of the usual basic braid transformations plus some natural ``right end transformations" and exactly one extra transformation. The main result generalizes our previous work for the Weyl group of type $A_{n}$.