SUBLATTICES OF THE SQUARE LATTICE AND COINCIDENCE SITE LATTICES

Lawrence A. Eclarin

INTRODUCTION

Crystallography is the study of crystals, their structures and properties [11].

The concept of a coincidence site lattices (CSLs) arises in the crystallography of grain
and twin boundaries [2]. It was Friedel in 1911 who first recognized the usefulness of
CSLs in describing and classifying grain boundaries of crystals [3]. Different domains
of a crystal do have a relationship: There is a sublattice common to both domains
across a boundary , and this is the CSL. This can be seen as the intersection of a
perfect lattice with a rotated copy of it where the points common to both forms a
sublattice of finite index, the CSL [10].
In this article, we consider the case for the two-dimensional square lattice.
In [6], De Las Penas and Felix identified color groups associated with square and
hexagonal lattices. The results were obtained by representing a sublattice by a 2 2
upper triangular matrix. Using this canonical matrix representation, the intersection
of pairs of distinct sublattices of the square lattice and the intersection of the square
lattice with its rotated copy, the CSL, are found. We present methods for finding
these.
Fist we discuss some basic terms and concepts as defined in [1, 6]. A lattice
in is a subgroup of the form
= a a a ,
where {a, a, , a} is a basis of . A set is called a sublattice of if it is a
subgroup of finite index.
A square lattice is a 2-dimensional lattice isomorphic to and we will
usually refer to as the square lattice. We can write = e e with

1
standard basis {e, e}. A sublattice of that is generated by two linearly

independent translations and is represented by the 2 2 matrix .

Figure 1. The square lattice and a sublattice generated by

two linearly independent points (, ) and (, )

Two 2 2 matrices are column equivalent if one may be obtained from the
other by a finite combination of any of the following elementary column operations:
(1) permutation of the columns; (2) multiplication of a column by 1 or 1; or (3)
addition of an integral multiple of a column to another column. Column equivalent
matrices represent the same sublattice.
A canonical form for the 2 2 matrix representing a given sublattice is

= , , , 0 < , 0 < . This upper triangular matrix with the
0
given form, representing , is unique. The sublattice has distinct cosets which is
equal to the determinant of the canonical matrix representing .

2
 Figure 2. The cosets of a sublattice of index 3. Points of
the same color belong to the same coset.

With this canonical form we can show that the number of subgroups of
of index is given by
| .

For example, the number of distinct subgroups of with index 4 is equal to

1 0 2 0 2 1 4 0 4 1 4 2 4 3
1 + 2 + 4 = 7.These are , , , , , , .
0 4 0 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1

INTERSECTION OF SUBLATTICES OF THE SQUARE LATTICE

We can find the intersection of two distinct sublattices of by plotting the

elements of the two subgroups embedded in over a finite domain containing the
origin, and then identify the points common to both sets. This can be done manually
or by the use of graphing software. But manual plotting of points can be tedious and
computer applications may not be readily available. Also, these methods pose some
problems when the matrices representing the sublattices have large indices.
Alternatively, we can find their intersection by making use of canonical forms.

Suppose that = , 0 < , 0 and = , 0
0 0

3
 < , 0 . Then the intersection is a sublattice of and may be
represented by a 2 2 matrix in canonical form.

Consider . The set ( + ) {} for each . Furthermore,

we have =
[( + ) {}]. Similarly we have ( + )

{} for each and =

[( + ) {}].

Since the intersection may be written in canonical form, we can limit our
domain to the points for which , 1 and the nonnegative integers, . So we get
the following sets:
For , we have
{0}
( + ) {}
(2 + ) {2}
(3 + ) {3}

For , we have
{0}
( + ) {}
(2 + ) {2}
(3 + ) {3}


If = 0 < , 0 < , then the points (, 0) and (, ) will
0
be in the intersection of the above subsets of and . We can easily get (, 0) by
taking (, ) = . By listing the elements of the above subsets in the domain
where , 1, we can identify (, ) as the point common to the subsets which
satisfies the condition that 0 < where b is minimum. The points (, 0) and
(, ) taken in this manner are linearly independent and they generate the
sublattice .
4
 Let us apply this method in finding the intersection of the sublattices
2 1 3 2
= and = .
0 2 0 1

First we list the elements of the subsets of of the form ( + )

{} where = 2, = 1, = 2 for = 1,2,

And we have

(1 + 2) {2} = {(1,2), (3,2), (5,2) }

2 {4} = {(0,4), (2,4), (6,4), }
(1 + 2) {6} = {(1,6), (3,6), (5,6), }

Similarly for we get

(2 + 3) {1} = {(2,1), (5,1), (8,1), }

(1 + 3) {2} = {(1,2), (4,2), (7,2), }
3 {3} = {(0,3), (3,3), (6,3)}

2 1 3 2 6 1
Thus = = .
0 2 0 1 0 2

Note that in the intersection, 2 = (, ). This is actually the case in

general and we can refine the technique by considering only the subsets containing
(, ) in which = (, ).

That is, in the above example we can just consider the sets
{1 + 2} {2} = {(1,2), (3,2), (5,2), (7,2), }
(1 + 3) {2} = {(1,2), (4,2), (7,2), (10,3) } .

5
 COINCIDENCE SITE LATTICES

In [1], two lattices 1 and 2 are said to be commensurate if 1 2 is a

sublattice (of finite index) of both 1 and 2. This relation is denoted, 1 2. If is a
lattice in and () (, ) then is a coincidence isometry of when
~. The set of coincidence isometries and coincidence rotations of are defined
respectively as
() { ()|

~}
() { ()|det() = 1

}

Baake proves that () and () are subgroups of (). Furthermore,

( ) = (, ) and ( ) = (, ), i.e. the coincidence isometries of
are orthogonal matrices with rational entries. As a result, if (, )then
forms a coincidence site lattice if and only if both cos and sin are
rational where is the angle of rotation. This gives the well-known relation between
coincidence rotations and primitive Pythagorean triples [9].
In his paper, Baake identifies the square lattice with the ring of Gaussian
integers, [], and defines a correspondence between the set of rotations
( ) () with multiplication by a complex number ().
The figure below shows the CSL formed by a rotation of = tan(4/3).

Figure 3. The square lattice, a rotated copy and the CSL formed.

6
 5 2
The CSL formed is .
0 1

In general, the CSLs are of the form where is the largest of the
0 1
Pythagorean triples corresponding to the coincidence rotation . Suppose (, , )
is a Pythagorean triple satisfying + = and = tan(/). For (, )
[], we have

(, = ) , (, ( = ), 1).

For example, take = tan(4/3). We have
3 4
(, = ) , (, ).
5 5
Equating the product to (, 1) we get the equations
3 4
=
5 5
4 3
+ = 1 .
5 5
Solving for in terms of ,
5 4
= 5 4 0 3
3
From this congruence we get the least positive integral solution. So we take = 2
5 2
and find = 2. Thus the intersection .
0 1

CONCLUSION

In this paper, it is shown that the canonical representation = ,
0
, , , 0 < , 0 < given by De Las Penas and Felix is useful in deriving a
method for finding the intersection of two distinct sublattices of the square lattices.
Furthermore, using the results of Baake we can also find the CSL formed by the
square lattice with a rotated copy of itself given that the coincidence rotation is an
orthogonal matrix with rational entries.
7
 REFERENCES

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