International Tables for Crystallography
Volume A: Space-group symmetry
First online edition (2006) ISBN: 978-0-7923-6590-7 https://doi.org/10.1107/97809553602060000100
Edited by Th. Hahn
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Volume A treats crystallographic symmetry in direct or physical space. It contains extensive tabulations and illustrations of the 17 plane groups, the 230 space groups and the 32 crystallographic point groups.
The first five parts of the volume contain introductory material: lists of symbols and terms; a guide to the use of the space-group tables; the determination of space groups; synoptic tables of space-group symbols; and unit-cell (coordinate) transformations. These are followed by the plane-group and space-group tables (Parts 6 and 7). For each group type, the following information is presented:
- headline with the relevant group symbols;
- diagrams of the symmetry elements and of the general position;
- specification of the origin and the asymmetric unit;
- list of symmetry operations;
- generators;
- general and special positions with multiplicities, site symmetries, coordinates and reflection conditions;
- symmetries of special projections;
- extensive subgroup and supergroup data.
Parts 8 to 15 deal with the following aspects of symmetry theory: the mathematical approach to space groups; crystal lattices; point groups and crystal classes; symbols for symmetry operations; symbols for space groups; isomorphic subgroups of space groups; lattice complexes; and normalizers of space groups.
Volume A is designed not only for professional crystallographers, but also for chemists, physicists, mineralogists, biologists and material scientists who employ crystallographic methods and who are concerned with the structure and the properties of crystalline materials.
The fifth edition of Volume A was reviewed by P. Paufler [Acta Cryst. (2004). A60, 641-642]. The first edition was reviewed by K. M. Stadnicka, B. J. Oleksyn and K. Z. Sokalski [Acta Cryst. (1987). A43, 156-159].