Space notation, Hermann-Mauguin

Crystal System Bravais space lattice 1 ASTM notation Hermann-Mauguin Pearson notation... 

Two forms of symmetry notation are commonly used. As chemists, you will come across both. The Schoenflies notation is useful for describing the point symmetry of individual molecules and is used by spectroscopists. The Hermann-Mauguin notation can be used to describe the point symmetry of individual molecules but in addition can also describe the relationship of different molecules to one another in space—their so-called space-symmetry—and so is the form most commonly met in crystallography and the solid state. We give here the Schoenflies notation in parentheses after the Hermann-Mauguin notation. 

Table 1-4 lists the point symmetry elements and the corresponding symmetry operations. The notation used by spectroscopists and chemists, and used here, is the so-called Schoenflies system, which deals only with point groups. Crystallographers generally use the Hermann-Mauguin system, which applies to both point and space groups. 

The Hermann- Mauguin notation is generally used by crystallographers to describe the space group. Tables exist to convert this notation to the Schoen-flies notation. The first symbol is a capital letter and indicates whether the lattice is primitive. The next symbol refers to the principal axis, whether it is rotation, inversion, or screw, e.g.,... 

Molecular point group Hermann-Mauguin notation (Schoenflies notation) Percentage of crystal structures in noncentrosymmetric space groups Number of structures considered... 

Note. The Hermann-Mauguin space group notation for any particular crystal comprises two parts. The first part identifies the Bravais lattice type into which the crystal belongs and the second part identifies the total symmetry of the array of atoms in the crystal and therefore also the crystal system. In the second part that identifies the symmetry, only those symmetry elements are included in the symbol that are necessary to describe the space group uniquely. The remainders are being omitted since they follow, as a necessary consequence. 

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