An algebraic classification of the three-dimensional crystallographic groups (Q807748)

The aim of the paper is to give an algebraic characterization of the 3- dimensional crystallographic point groups. One gets all nonequivalent crystallographic point groups yielding all nonisomorphic space groups by considering the classes of conjugated finite subgroups of \(G\ell (3,Z)\). There are 73 of such classes, all explicitly known. So the interest of the paper lies in the group theoretical characterization of those point groups. The authors begin by classifying all finite subgroups of Sl(3,Z) which are solvable. They then show, that any such group F contains a maximal Abelian normal subgroup A, of which F is the split extension. Accordingly, F is a subgroup of the holomorph of A, i.e. of the semidirect product of A by Aut(A). The further analysis is based on representation theory. In this way the authors find the 73 arithmetic classes of the finite subgroups of Gl(3,Z), mentioned above. One may hope that this characterization can be extended to the higher dimensional case.