Abstract
Spatial symmetries occur in combination with temporal symmetries in a wide range of physical systems in nature, including time-periodic quantum systems typically described by the Floquet formalism. In this context, groups formed by three-dimensional point group symmetry operations in combination with time translation operations are discussed in this work. The derivation of these 'spatio-temporal' groups from conventional point groups and their irreducible representations is outlined, followed by a complete listing. The groups are presented in a template similar to space group operations, and are visualized using a modified version of conventional stereographic projections. Simple examples of physical processes that simultaneously exhibit symmetry in space and time are identified and used to illustrate the application of spatio-temporal groups.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 187 |
Journal | Symmetry |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 1 2017 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Computer Science (miscellaneous)
- Chemistry (miscellaneous)
- General Mathematics
- Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)