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The 54 hemisymmorphic space groups contain only axial combination of symmetry elements from the corresponding point groups. Example for point group 4/mmm (): hemisymmorphic space groups contain the axial combination 422, but at least one mirror plane m will be substituted with glide plane, for example P4/mcc (, 35h), P4/nbm (, 36h), P4/nnc ...
Each crystallographic point group defines the (geometric) crystal class of the crystal. The point group of a crystal determines, among other things, the directional variation of physical properties that arise from its structure, including optical properties such as birefringency , or electro-optical features such as the Pockels effect .
All of the discrete point symmetries are subgroups of certain continuous symmetries. They can be classified as products of orthogonal groups O(n) or special orthogonal groups SO(n). O(1) is a single orthogonal reflection, dihedral symmetry order 2, Dih 1. SO(1) is just the identity. Half turns, C 2, are needed to complete.
Point groups are used to describe the symmetries of geometric figures and physical objects such as molecules. Each point group can be represented as sets of orthogonal matrices M that transform point x into point y according to y = Mx. Each element of a point group is either a rotation (determinant of M = 1), or it is a reflection or improper ...
In geometry, a point group in three dimensions is an isometry group in three dimensions that leaves the origin fixed, or correspondingly, an isometry group of a sphere.It is a subgroup of the orthogonal group O(3), the group of all isometries that leave the origin fixed, or correspondingly, the group of orthogonal matrices.
These groups are characterized by an n-fold improper rotation axis S n, where n is necessarily even. The S 2 group is the same as the C i group in the nonaxial groups section. S n groups with an odd value of n are identical to C nh groups of same n and are therefore not considered here (in particular, S 1 is identical to C s).
A set of matrices that multiply together in a way that mimics the multiplication table of the elements of a group is called a representation of the group. For example, for the C 2v point group, the following three matrices are part of a representation of the group:
The 27 point groups in the table plus T, T d, T h, O and O h constitute 32 crystallographic point groups. Groups with n = ∞ are called limit groups or Curie groups . There are two more limit groups, not listed in the table: K (for Kugel , German for ball, sphere), the group of all rotations in 3-dimensional space; and K h , the group of all ...