Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 ...
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).
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.
Many of the crystallographic point groups share the same internal structure. For example, the point groups 1, 2, and m contain different geometric symmetry operations, (inversion, rotation, and reflection, respectively) but all share the structure of the cyclic group C 2.
There are 230 space groups in three dimensions, given by a number index, and a full name in Hermann–Mauguin notation, and a short name (international short symbol). The long names are given with spaces for readability. The groups each have a point group of the unit cell.
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.
The symmetry groups are named here by three naming schemes: International notation, orbifold notation, and Coxeter notation. There are three kinds of symmetry groups of the plane: 2 families of rosette groups – 2D point groups; 7 frieze groups – 2D line groups; 17 wallpaper groups – 2D space groups.
Of the 32 crystallographic point groups that exist in three dimensions, most are assigned to only one lattice system, in which case both the crystal and lattice systems have the same name. However, five point groups are assigned to two lattice systems, rhombohedral and hexagonal, because both exhibit threefold rotational symmetry.