Acta Crystallographica Section A

Foundations of Crystallography

Volume 58, Part 1 (January 2002)

short communications

Acta Cryst. (2002). A58, 75-76 [ doi:10.1107/S0108767301016725 ]

Latent symmetry

D. B. Litvin and V. K. Wadhawan

Abstract: A theorem is proven which provides a sufficient condition that an isometry is a symmetry of a composite constructed from a component and a group of isometries. The concept of latent symmetry is broadened and this theorem is applied to deduce latent symmetry of example composites, including an example discussed by Litvin & Wadhawan [Acta Cryst. (2001), A57, 435-441], the latent symmetry of which could not be determined there systematically.

Keywords: latent symmetry.