International
Tables for Crystallography Volume A Space-group symmetry Edited by Th. Hahn © International Union of Crystallography 2006 |
International Tables for Crystallography (2006). Vol. A. ch. 12.3, p. 832
Section 12.3.4. Standardization rules for short symbols
a
Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, Robert-Koch-Strasse 4a, D-91080 Uttenreuth, Germany, and bInstitut für Angewandte Physik, Lehrstuhl für Kristallographie und Strukturphysik, Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, Bismarckstrasse 10, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany |
The symbols of Bravais lattices and glide planes depend on the choice of basis vectors. As shown in the preceding section, additional translation vectors in centred unit cells produce new symmetry operations with the same rotation but different glide/screw parts. Moreover, it was shown that for diagonal orientations symmetry operations may be represented by different symbols. Thus, different short symbols for the same space group can be derived even if the rules for the selection of the generators and indicators are obeyed.
For the unique designation of a space-group type, a standardization of the short symbol is necessary. Rules for standardization were given first by Hermann (1931) and later in a slightly modified form in IT (1952)
.
These rules, which are generally followed in the present tables, are given below. Because of the historical development of the symbols (cf. Chapter 12.4
), some of the present symbols do not obey the rules, whereas others depending on the crystal class need additional rules for them to be uniquely determined. These exceptions and additions are not explicitly mentioned, but may be discovered from Table 12.3.4.1
in which the short symbols are listed for all space groups. A table for all settings may be found in Chapter 4.3
.
†Abbreviations used in the column Comments: IT, 1952: International Tables for X-ray Crystallography, Vol. 1 (1952) ![]() ![]() |
Triclinic symbols are unique if the unit cell is primitive. For the standard setting of monoclinic space groups, the lattice symmetry direction is labelled b. From the three possible centrings A, I and C, the latter one is favoured. If glide components occur in the plane perpendicular to [010], the glide direction c is preferred. In the space groups corresponding to the orthorhombic group mm2, the unique direction of the twofold axis is chosen along c. Accordingly, the face centring C is employed for centrings perpendicular to the privileged direction. For space groups with possible A or B centring, the first one is preferred. For groups 222 and mmm, no privileged symmetry direction exists, so the different possibilities of one-face centring can be reduced to C centring by change of the setting. The choices of unit cell and centring type are fixed by the conventional basis in systems with higher symmetry.
When more than one kind of symmetry elements exist in one representative direction, in most cases the choice for the space-group symbol is made in order of decreasing priority: for reflections and glide reflections m, a, b, c, n, d, for proper rotations and screw rotations ;
;
;
[cf. IT (1952)
, p. 55, and Chapter 4.1
].
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