Crystal structures. I. Patterns and symmetry / Кристаллические структуры. I. Закономерности и симметрия

This book (the first of two volumes) is devoted to the topic of the description of structures, especially periodic structures, and their symmetries. Much of the material is a prerequisite for serious students of solid state chemistry and related sciences (e.g. mineralogy, materials science and solid state physics). Earlier drafts served as part of the lecture notes used for some years for a course in solid state chemistry at Arizona State University; the order of presentation of topics, occasional repetitiveness and the sometimes hectoring tone to some extent reflect this origin.
From a chemist’s point of view, probably the most fundamental piece of information about a chemical compound is the way its atoms are arranged in space. For small molecules this information can be fairly readily assimilated, but the task becomes increasingly difficult for macromolecules, as any student of biochemistry can attest. For crystalline solids (which are really “infinite” molecules) the difficulty is equally great, and requires learning the methods appropriate to describing infinite periodic objects. <...>