Mermin replies: I’m glad that Ted Janssen sees some elegance in the approach to crystal symmetry that my collaborators and I developed for aperiodic crystals, and I’m pleased to return the compliment to the standard approach of him and his collaborators.
As far as I know, the precise connection was only recently spelled out between our phase (gauge) functions and the rather different phases (factor systems) that appear in the venerable theory of space-group representations. 1 This link offers a more direct and elementary route from crystal symmetry to some of the major physical applications of space-group representations. 2
REFERENCES
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) .© 2001 American Institute of Physics.
2001
American Institute of Physics
