Rotation Groups

Publication date 25 February 2018

Abstract: A query, about the orbit

P c a l W

in real 3-space of a point

P

under an isometry group

c a l W

generated by edge rotations of a tetrahedron, leads to contrasting notions,

c a l W

versus

c a l S

, of "rotation group". The set R

= r_{{s f A}_{1}}, r_{{s f A}_{2}}

of rotations

r_{{s f A}_{i}}

about axes

{s f A}_{i}

generates two manifestations of an isometry group on

R e^{3}

: (1). In the {em stationary} group

c a l S := S

(R), all axes {sf B} are fixed under a rotation

r_{s f A}

about {sf A}. (2). In the {em peripatetic} group

c a l W := W

(R), each

r_{s f A}

transforms every rotational axis

s f B o t = A

. {�f Theorem.} If the line

{s f A}_{1}

is skew to

{s f A}_{2}

, if each

r_{{s f A}_{i}}

is of infinite order, and if

P i n R e^{3}

, then both of the orbits

P c a l S

and

P c a l W

are dense in

R e^{3}

.

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