Isometry group
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In mathematics, the isometry group of a
metric space In mathematics, a metric space is a set together with a notion of '' distance'' between its elements, usually called points. The distance is measured by a function called a metric or distance function. Metric spaces are the most general set ...
is the
set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...
of all
bijective In mathematics, a bijection, also known as a bijective function, one-to-one correspondence, or invertible function, is a function between the elements of two sets, where each element of one set is paired with exactly one element of the other ...
isometries In mathematics, an isometry (or congruence, or congruent transformation) is a distance-preserving transformation between metric spaces, usually assumed to be bijective. The word isometry is derived from the Ancient Greek: ἴσος ''isos'' mea ...
(i.e. bijective, distance-preserving maps) from the metric space onto itself, with the function composition as
group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...
operation. Its
identity element In mathematics, an identity element, or neutral element, of a binary operation operating on a set is an element of the set that leaves unchanged every element of the set when the operation is applied. This concept is used in algebraic structures su ...
is the
identity function Graph of the identity function on the real numbers In mathematics, an identity function, also called an identity relation, identity map or identity transformation, is a function that always returns the value that was used as its argument, un ...
. The elements of the isometry group are sometimes called
motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and m ...
s of the space. Every isometry group of a metric space is a
subgroup In group theory, a branch of mathematics, given a group ''G'' under a binary operation ∗, a subset ''H'' of ''G'' is called a subgroup of ''G'' if ''H'' also forms a group under the operation ∗. More precisely, ''H'' is a subgroup ...
of isometries. It represents in most cases a possible set of
symmetries Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definiti ...
of objects/figures in the space, or functions defined on the space. See symmetry group. A discrete isometry group is an isometry group such that for every point of the space the set of images of the point under the isometries is a discrete set. In
pseudo-Euclidean space In mathematics and theoretical physics, a pseudo-Euclidean space is a finite-dimensional real -space together with a non- degenerate quadratic form . Such a quadratic form can, given a suitable choice of basis , be applied to a vector , giving q(x ...
the metric is replaced with an
isotropic quadratic form In mathematics, a quadratic form over a field ''F'' is said to be isotropic if there is a non-zero vector on which the form evaluates to zero. Otherwise the quadratic form is anisotropic. More precisely, if ''q'' is a quadratic form on a vector s ...
; transformations preserving this form are sometimes called "isometries", and the collection of them is then said to form an isometry group of the pseudo-Euclidean space.


Examples

* The isometry group of the subspace of a
metric space In mathematics, a metric space is a set together with a notion of '' distance'' between its elements, usually called points. The distance is measured by a function called a metric or distance function. Metric spaces are the most general set ...
consisting of the points of a
scalene triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non-collinear ...
is the
trivial group In mathematics, a trivial group or zero group is a group consisting of a single element. All such groups are isomorphic, so one often speaks of the trivial group. The single element of the trivial group is the identity element and so it is usuall ...
. A similar space for an isosceles triangle is the
cyclic group In group theory, a branch of abstract algebra in pure mathematics, a cyclic group or monogenous group is a group, denoted C''n'', that is generated by a single element. That is, it is a set of invertible elements with a single associative bina ...
of order two, C2. A similar space for an equilateral triangle is D3, the
dihedral group of order 6 In mathematics, D3 (sometimes alternatively denoted by D6) is the dihedral group of degree 3, or, in other words, the dihedral group of order 6. It is isomorphic to the symmetric group S3 of degree 3. It is also the smallest possible non-abeli ...
. * The isometry group of a two-dimensional
sphere A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is th ...
is the orthogonal group O(3). * The isometry group of the ''n''-dimensional
Euclidean space Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, that is, in Euclid's ''Elements'', it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are Euclidean ...
is the Euclidean group E(''n''). * The isometry group of the
Poincaré disc model Poincaré is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Henri Poincaré (1854–1912), French physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science * Henriette Poincaré (1858-1943), wife of Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré * Luci ...
of the hyperbolic plane is the projective special unitary group
SU(1,1) In mathematics, the special unitary group of degree , denoted , is the Lie group of unitary matrices with determinant 1. The more general unitary matrices may have complex determinants with absolute value 1, rather than real 1 in the special ...
. * The isometry group of the Poincaré half-plane model of the hyperbolic plane is
PSL(2,R) In mathematics, the special linear group SL(2, R) or SL2(R) is the group of 2 × 2 real matrices with determinant one: : \mbox(2,\mathbf) = \left\. It is a connected non-compact simple real Lie group of dimension 3 with ...
. * The isometry group of
Minkowski space In mathematical physics, Minkowski space (or Minkowski spacetime) () is a combination of three-dimensional Euclidean space and time into a four-dimensional manifold where the spacetime interval between any two events is independent of the iner ...
is the
Poincaré group The Poincaré group, named after Henri Poincaré (1906), was first defined by Hermann Minkowski (1908) as the group of Minkowski spacetime isometries. It is a ten-dimensional non-abelian Lie group that is of importance as a model in our und ...
.. *
Riemannian symmetric space In mathematics, a symmetric space is a Riemannian manifold (or more generally, a pseudo-Riemannian manifold) whose group of symmetries contains an inversion symmetry about every point. This can be studied with the tools of Riemannian geometry, ...
s are important cases where the isometry group is a Lie group.


See also

* Point group *
Point groups in two dimensions In geometry, a two-dimensional point group or rosette group is a group of geometric symmetries (isometries) that keep at least one point fixed in a plane. Every such group is a subgroup of the orthogonal group O(2), including O(2) itself. Its ...
*
Point groups in three dimensions In geometry, a point group in three dimensions is an isometry group in three dimensions that leaves the origin fixed, or correspondingly, an isometry group of a sphere. It is a subgroup of the orthogonal group O(3), the group of all isometrie ...
*
Fixed points of isometry groups in Euclidean space A fixed point of an isometry group is a point that is a fixed point for every isometry in the group. For any isometry group in Euclidean space the set of fixed points is either empty or an affine space. For an object, any unique centre and, more g ...


References

{{reflist Metric geometry