Molecular crystals hypersymmetry

Hypersymmetry may be interpreted on the basis of the symmetry of the potential energy functions describing the conditions of the formation of the molecular crystal. The molecules around a certain... 

A typical characteristic of hypersymmetry operations is that they exercise their influence in well-defined discrete domains. These domains do not overlap—they do not even touch each other. The usual hypersymmetry elements lead to point-group properties. This means that no infinite molecular chains could be selected, for example, to which these hypersymmetry operations would apply. They affect, instead, pairs of molecules or very small groups of molecules. Thus, they can really be considered as local point-group operations. These hypersymmetry elements, accordingly, divide the whole crystalline system into numerous small groups of molecules, or transform the crystal space into a layered structure. 

---