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0.1 Point Groups | PDF | Lattice (Group) | Group (Mathematics)
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0.1 Point Groups

Point groups represent symmetry operations that leave at least one point unchanged. In two dimensions, these include cyclic groups Cn representing rotational symmetries and dihedral groups Dn including inversion. In three dimensions, point groups correspond to symmetry groups of regular polyhedra. Lattice groups represent translational symmetries on a lattice defined by basis vectors. Any pattern repeating in space exists on such a lattice. The crystallographic restriction provides that only rotations of order 1-6 are possible in uniform tilings of space, allowing 10 possible plane groups: C1, C2, C3, C4, C6, D1, D2, D3, D4, D6. Space groups combine point groups and lattice

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120 views2 pages

0.1 Point Groups

Point groups represent symmetry operations that leave at least one point unchanged. In two dimensions, these include cyclic groups Cn representing rotational symmetries and dihedral groups Dn including inversion. In three dimensions, point groups correspond to symmetry groups of regular polyhedra. Lattice groups represent translational symmetries on a lattice defined by basis vectors. Any pattern repeating in space exists on such a lattice. The crystallographic restriction provides that only rotations of order 1-6 are possible in uniform tilings of space, allowing 10 possible plane groups: C1, C2, C3, C4, C6, D1, D2, D3, D4, D6. Space groups combine point groups and lattice

Uploaded by

Miguel Angel Mosquera Molina
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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0.

point groups

A point group is a group of symmetry operations leaving at least one point unchanged, i.e.
there exists a point x such that G, x = x. These requirements are very general,
admitting rotation groups of all orders, and inversions, and, of course, combinations of
these operations. The point groups are represented by matricies of determinant 1 and are
therefore the subgroups of O(n).
In two dimensions, a rotation group of order n (that is, consisting of rotations of 2k/n
radians for integers k) is denoted as the cyclic group Cn . If we include inversion (improper
rotations) then we generate the dihedral group Dn , the group of symmetries of a regular
n-gon. Similarly, the point groups in three dimensions are the symmetry groups of regular
polyhedra, with and without allowing inversion.

0.2

lattice groups

A lattice is a point set exhibiting translational symmetry. In the plane we can represent this
translational symmetry by two nonparallel basis vectors and , such that for x, y X
there are unique a, b Z such that y = a + b.

0.3

the crystallographic restriction

Any pattern repeating in space, such as a tesselation of the plane or a crystal in space, exists
on such a lattice. Therefore we are very interested in lattice symmetries. In particular this
brings about the crystallographic restriction.
If a particular point set exhibits rotational symmetry about a point x and it also exhibits
translational symmetry by a vector then it must also exhibit rotational symmetry about
x0 = x + . It turns out that only rotations of order 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 are possible in a uniform
tiling of space. This is known as the crystallographic restriction.
As we may also utilize the inversion operation, improper rotations should also be included.
Thus the possible point-group symmetries on a lattice are C1 , C2 , C3 , C4 , C6 , D1 , D2 , D3 , D4 , D6 .
The crystallographic restriction may be proved by contradiction. Suppose a wallpaper
group has rotations of order q and let a be the shortest nonzero vector in L, the lattice group.
Then let A be a rotation by an angle 2/q. If q > 6 or if q = 5 then Aa is shorter than A,
violating the hypothesis concerning a. The only remaining possibilities are q {1, 2, 3, 4, 6}.

Space groups

The space groups are the result of combining a point group with a lattice group. Two
dimensional space groups are called wallpaper groups since they represent every possible
symmetry system of regular patterns tiling the plane; three dimensional space groups are
called the crystallographic group. There are seventeen space groups in two dimensions,
230 in three dimensions, and 4901 in four dimensions.

Employing the trick of homogeneous coordinates we can represent an affine transformation in n dimensions as an n + 1 dimensional square matrix. In this system point is
represented as a column vector consisting of its n coordinates augmented with a dummy
coordinate with value 1.
In this way we can represent each basis vector of a translation group as a matrix, as well as
a rotation matrix and the inversion matrix. Thus we have the ingredients needed to generate
a space group in any dimension. The space groups are exactly those groups generated in this
manner. We see immediately as well that any space group will have translation and rotation
subgroups. The existence of the subgroup of translations is known as Bieberbachs theorem.
As a regular point set fills space, the translational subgroup must be infinite. Furthermore, translations are obviously commutative, so this subgroup is Abelian. Senechal notes
that the existence of this infinite commutative subgroup may be used to define the space
groups.

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