International
Tables for
Crystallography
Volume A
Space-group symmetry
Edited by M. I. Aroyo

International Tables for Crystallography (2016). Vol. A, ch. 3.6, pp. 853-854

## Section 3.6.2.2.2. Magnetic group type symbol

D. B. Litvina*

aDepartment of Physics, The Eberly College of Science, Penn State – Berks Campus, The Pennsylvania State University, PO Box 7009, Reading, PA 19610–6009, USA
Correspondence e-mail: u3c@psu.edu

#### 3.6.2.2.2. Magnetic group type symbol

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A Hermann–Mauguin-like type symbol is given for each magnetic group type in the second column. This symbol denotes both the group type and the representative group of that type. For example, the symbol for the three-dimensional magnetic space-group type 25.4.158 is . This symbol denotes both the group type, which consists of an infinite set of groups, and the representative group . While this representative group may be referred to as `the group ', other groups of this group type, e.g. , will always be written with sub­indices. The representative group of the magnetic group type is defined by its translational subgroup, implied by the first letter in the magnetic group type symbol and defined in Table 1.1 of Litvin (2013), and a given set of coset representatives, called the standard set of coset representatives, of the representative group with respect to its translational subgroup.

Only the relative lengths and mutual orientations of the translation vectors of the translational subgroup are given, see Table 1.2 of Litvin (2013). The symmetry directions of symmetry operations represented by characters in the Hermann–Mauguin symbols are implied by the character's position in the symbol and are given in Table 1.3 of Litvin (2013). The standard set of coset representatives are given with respect to an implied coordinate system. The absolute lengths of translation vectors, the position in space of the origin of the coordinate system and the orientation in that space of the basis vectors of that coordinate system are not explicitly given.

### References

Litvin, D. B. (2013). Magnetic Group Tables, 1-, 2- and 3-Dimensional Magnetic Subperiodic Groups and Space Groups. Chester: International Union of Crystallography. Freely available from http://www.iucr.org/publ/978–0–9553602–2–0 .