Incommensurate crystallography without additional dimensions.

It is shown that the Euclidean group of translations, when treated as a Lie group, generates translations not only in Euclidean space but on any space, curved or not. Translations are then not necessarily vectors (straight lines); they can be any curve compatible with the parameterization of the considered space. In particular, attention is drawn to the fact that one and only one finite and free module of the Lie algebra of the group of translations can generate both modulated and non-modulated lattices, the modulated character being given only by the parameterization of the space in which the lattice is generated. Moreover, it is shown that the diffraction pattern of a structure is directly linked to the action of that free and finite module. In the Fourier transform of a whole structure, the Fourier transform of the electron density of one unit cell (i.e. the structure factor) appears concretely, whether the structure is modulated or not. Thus, there exists a neat separation: the geometrical aspect on the one hand and the action of the group on the other, without requiring additional dimensions.

The role of the tangent bundle for symmetry operations and modulated structures.

An equivalence relation on the tangent bundle of a manifold is defined in order to extend a structure (modulated or not) onto it. This extension affords a representation of a structure in any tangent space and that in another tangent space can easily be derived. Euclidean symmetry operations associated with the tangent bundle are generalized and their usefulness for the determination of the intrinsic translation part in helicoidal axes and glide planes is illustrated. Finally, a novel representation of space groups is shown to be independent of any origin point.

Differential geometry: a natural tool for describing symmetry operations.

Differential geometry provides a useful mathematical framework for describing the fundamental concepts in crystallography. The notions of point and associated vector spaces correspond to those of manifold and tangent space at a given point. A space-group operation is a one-to-one map acting on the manifold, whereas a point-group operation is a linear map acting between two tangent spaces of the manifold. Manifold theory proves particularly powerful as a unified formalism describing symmetry operations of conventional as well as modulated crystals without requiring a higher-dimensional space. We show, in particular, that a modulated structure recovers a three-dimensional periodicity in any tangent space and that its point group consists of linear applications.