Relations in SO(3) supported by geodetic angles

DOI10.1007/S004540010015MaRDI QIDQ1569846zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors L. Sadun, Charles Radin, J. H. Conway

Publication date 21 February 2001

Published in Discrete \& Computational Geometry (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s004540010015

zbMATH Keywords

geodetic anglesrelationsrotationsspecial orthogonal groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Linear algebraic groups over the reals, the complexes, the quaternions (20G20) Orthogonal and unitary groups in metric geometry (51F25)

Review text

Let \(G_\alpha(p,q)\) be the subgroup of \(\text{SO}(3)\) generated by rotations \(A\) and \(B\) of order \(p\) and \(q\), respectively, about axes separated by an angle \(\alpha\). An angle \(\alpha\) supports relations if, for some integers \(p\) and \(q\), the group \(G_\alpha(p,q)\) is not the free product of the obvious \(\mathbb{Z}_p\) and \(\mathbb{Z}_q\) subgroups. Angles whose squared trigonometric functions are rational are called geodetic. If an angle \(\alpha\) is geodetic, then \(x=\exp(2i\alpha)\) is at worst a quadratic irrational since \(x+x^{-1}+2=4\cos^2(\theta)\) is rational. Geodetic angles are denoted by the squares of their sines: \(\angle(a/c)\) denotes \(\sin^{-1}(\sqrt{a/c})\). The authors show that there is only a finite set of geodetic angles \(\angle(a/c)\) that can support nontrivial relations between finite-order rotations \(A\) and \(B\) about axes separated by \(\angle(a/c)\). They list necessary conditions in terms of \(p\), \(q\), \(a\), and \(c\). They use explicit representations of the rotations \(A\) and \(B\) in \(\text{SO}(3)\) in order to determine which geodetic angles support relations. The angles between two axes of symmetries of Platonic solids support relations. They play an important role in this investigation.

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Cited in

(6)

• A class of free rotation groups
• Conway and aperiodic tilings
• The group of rotations of the sphere: generators and relations
• Exact synthesis of single-qubit unitaries over Clifford-cyclotomic gate sets
• On 2-Generator Subgroups of SO(3)
• PRODUCTS OF ROTATIONS BY A GIVEN ANGLE IN THE ORTHOGONAL GROUP

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