Glide plane
Encyclopedia
In crystallography
, a glide plane is symmetry operation describing how a reflection
in a plane, followed by a translation parallel with that plane, may leave the crystal unchanged.
Glide planes are noted by a, b or c, depending on which axis the glide is along. There is also the n glide, which is a glide along the half of a diagonal of a face, and the d glide, which is along a fourth of either a face or space diagonal of the unit cell. The latter is often called the diamond glide plane as it features in the diamond structure.
, a glide plane operation is a type of isometry
of the Euclidean space
: the combination of a reflection
in a plane and a translation
in that plane. Reversing the order of combining gives the same result. Depending on context, we may consider a reflection a special case, where the translation vector is the zero vector.
The combination of a reflection in a plane and a translation in a perpendicular direction is a reflection in a parallel plane. However, a glide plane operation with a nonzero translation vector in the plane cannot be reduced like that. Thus the effect of a reflection combined with any translation is a glide plane operation in the general sense, with as special case just a reflection. The glide plane operation in the strict sense and the pure reflection are two of the four kinds of indirect isometries in 3D.
The isometry group
generated by just a glide plane operation is an infinite cyclic group
. Combining two equal glide plane operations gives a pure translation with a translation vector that is twice that of the glide plane operation, so the even powers of the glide plane operation form a translation group.
In the case of glide plane symmetry, the symmetry group
of an object contains a glide plane operation, and hence the group generated by it. For any symmetry group containing glide plane symmetry, the translation vector of any glide plane operation is one half of an element of the translation group. If the translation vector of a glide plane operation is itself an element of the translation group, then the corresponding glide plane symmetry reduces to a combination of reflection symmetry
and translational symmetry
.
See also lattice
.
Crystallography
Crystallography is the experimental science of the arrangement of atoms in solids. The word "crystallography" derives from the Greek words crystallon = cold drop / frozen drop, with its meaning extending to all solids with some degree of transparency, and grapho = write.Before the development of...
, a glide plane is symmetry operation describing how a reflection
Reflection (mathematics)
In mathematics, a reflection is a mapping from a Euclidean space to itself that is an isometry with a hyperplane as set of fixed points; this set is called the axis or plane of reflection. The image of a figure by a reflection is its mirror image in the axis or plane of reflection...
in a plane, followed by a translation parallel with that plane, may leave the crystal unchanged.
Glide planes are noted by a, b or c, depending on which axis the glide is along. There is also the n glide, which is a glide along the half of a diagonal of a face, and the d glide, which is along a fourth of either a face or space diagonal of the unit cell. The latter is often called the diamond glide plane as it features in the diamond structure.
Formal treatment
In geometryGeometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
, a glide plane operation is a type of isometry
Isometry
In mathematics, an isometry is a distance-preserving map between metric spaces. Geometric figures which can be related by an isometry are called congruent.Isometries are often used in constructions where one space is embedded in another space...
of the Euclidean space
Euclidean space
In mathematics, Euclidean space is the Euclidean plane and three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, as well as the generalizations of these notions to higher dimensions...
: the combination of a reflection
Reflection (mathematics)
In mathematics, a reflection is a mapping from a Euclidean space to itself that is an isometry with a hyperplane as set of fixed points; this set is called the axis or plane of reflection. The image of a figure by a reflection is its mirror image in the axis or plane of reflection...
in a plane and a translation
Translation (geometry)
In Euclidean geometry, a translation moves every point a constant distance in a specified direction. A translation can be described as a rigid motion, other rigid motions include rotations and reflections. A translation can also be interpreted as the addition of a constant vector to every point, or...
in that plane. Reversing the order of combining gives the same result. Depending on context, we may consider a reflection a special case, where the translation vector is the zero vector.
The combination of a reflection in a plane and a translation in a perpendicular direction is a reflection in a parallel plane. However, a glide plane operation with a nonzero translation vector in the plane cannot be reduced like that. Thus the effect of a reflection combined with any translation is a glide plane operation in the general sense, with as special case just a reflection. The glide plane operation in the strict sense and the pure reflection are two of the four kinds of indirect isometries in 3D.
The isometry group
Isometry group
In mathematics, the isometry group of a metric space is the set of all isometries from the metric space onto itself, with the function composition as group operation...
generated by just a glide plane operation is an infinite cyclic group
Cyclic group
In group theory, a cyclic group is a group that can be generated by a single element, in the sense that the group has an element g such that, when written multiplicatively, every element of the group is a power of g .-Definition:A group G is called cyclic if there exists an element g...
. Combining two equal glide plane operations gives a pure translation with a translation vector that is twice that of the glide plane operation, so the even powers of the glide plane operation form a translation group.
In the case of glide plane symmetry, the symmetry group
Symmetry group
The symmetry group of an object is the group of all isometries under which it is invariant with composition as the operation...
of an object contains a glide plane operation, and hence the group generated by it. For any symmetry group containing glide plane symmetry, the translation vector of any glide plane operation is one half of an element of the translation group. If the translation vector of a glide plane operation is itself an element of the translation group, then the corresponding glide plane symmetry reduces to a combination of reflection symmetry
Reflection symmetry
Reflection symmetry, reflectional symmetry, line symmetry, mirror symmetry, mirror-image symmetry, or bilateral symmetry is symmetry with respect to reflection. That is, a figure which does not change upon undergoing a reflection has reflectional symmetry.In 2D there is a line of symmetry, in 3D a...
and translational symmetry
Translational symmetry
In geometry, a translation "slides" an object by a a: Ta = p + a.In physics and mathematics, continuous translational symmetry is the invariance of a system of equations under any translation...
.
See also lattice
Lattice (group)
In mathematics, especially in geometry and group theory, a lattice in Rn is a discrete subgroup of Rn which spans the real vector space Rn. Every lattice in Rn can be generated from a basis for the vector space by forming all linear combinations with integer coefficients...
.