Translational symmetry
Encyclopedia
In geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

, a translation
Translation (geometry)
In Euclidean geometry, a translation moves every point a constant distance in a specified direction. A translation can be described as a rigid motion, other rigid motions include rotations and reflections. A translation can also be interpreted as the addition of a constant vector to every point, or...

 "slides" an object by a a: Ta(p) = p + a.

In physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, continuous translational symmetry
Symmetry
Symmetry generally conveys two primary meanings. The first is an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically pleasing proportionality and balance; such that it reflects beauty or perfection...

 is the invariance
Invariant (mathematics)
In mathematics, an invariant is a property of a class of mathematical objects that remains unchanged when transformations of a certain type are applied to the objects. The particular class of objects and type of transformations are usually indicated by the context in which the term is used...

 of a system of equations under any translation. Discrete translational symmetry is invariance under discrete
Discrete mathematics
Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that are fundamentally discrete rather than continuous. In contrast to real numbers that have the property of varying "smoothly", the objects studied in discrete mathematics – such as integers, graphs, and statements in logic – do not...

 (quantized) translation.

Analogously an operator A on functions is said to be translation invariant with respect to a translation operator
Translation (geometry)
In Euclidean geometry, a translation moves every point a constant distance in a specified direction. A translation can be described as a rigid motion, other rigid motions include rotations and reflections. A translation can also be interpreted as the addition of a constant vector to every point, or...

  if the result after applying A doesn't change if the argument function is translated.
More precisely it must hold that


Laws of physics are translationally invariant if they do not distinguish different points in space. According to Noether's theorem
Noether's theorem
Noether's theorem states that any differentiable symmetry of the action of a physical system has a corresponding conservation law. The theorem was proved by German mathematician Emmy Noether in 1915 and published in 1918...

, translational symmetry of a physical system is equivalent to the momentum
Momentum
In classical mechanics, linear momentum or translational momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object...

 conservation law.

Translational symmetry of an object means that a particular translation does not change the object. For a given object, the translations for which this applies form a group, the symmetry group
Symmetry group
The symmetry group of an object is the group of all isometries under which it is invariant with composition as the operation...

 of the object, or, if the object has more kinds of symmetry, a subgroup of the symmetry group

Geometry

Translational invariance implies that, at least in one direction, the object is infinite: for any given point p, the set of points with the same properties due to the translational symmetry form the infinite discrete set {p + na|n ∈ Z} = p + Z a. Fundamental domains are e.g. H + [0, 1] a for any hyperplane
Hyperplane
A hyperplane is a concept in geometry. It is a generalization of the plane into a different number of dimensions.A hyperplane of an n-dimensional space is a flat subset with dimension n − 1...

 H for which a has an independent direction. This is in 1D a line segment
Line segment
In geometry, a line segment is a part of a line that is bounded by two end points, and contains every point on the line between its end points. Examples of line segments include the sides of a triangle or square. More generally, when the end points are both vertices of a polygon, the line segment...

, in 2D an infinite strip, and in 3D a slab, such that the vector starting at one side ends at the other side. Note that the strip and slab need not be perpendicular to the vector, hence can be narrower or thinner than the length of the vector.

In spaces with dimension higher than 1, there may be multiple translational symmetry. For each set of k independent translation vectors the symmetry group is isomorphic with Zk.
In particular the multiplicity may be equal to the dimension. This implies that the object is infinite in all directions. In this case the set of all translations forms a lattice
Lattice (group)
In mathematics, especially in geometry and group theory, a lattice in Rn is a discrete subgroup of Rn which spans the real vector space Rn. Every lattice in Rn can be generated from a basis for the vector space by forming all linear combinations with integer coefficients...

. Different bases of translation vectors generate the same lattice if and only if
If and only if
In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, if and only if is a biconditional logical connective between statements....

 one is transformed into the other by a matrix of integer coefficients of which the absolute value
Absolute value
In mathematics, the absolute value |a| of a real number a is the numerical value of a without regard to its sign. So, for example, the absolute value of 3 is 3, and the absolute value of -3 is also 3...

 of the determinant
Determinant
In linear algebra, the determinant is a value associated with a square matrix. It can be computed from the entries of the matrix by a specific arithmetic expression, while other ways to determine its value exist as well...

 is 1. The absolute value
Absolute value
In mathematics, the absolute value |a| of a real number a is the numerical value of a without regard to its sign. So, for example, the absolute value of 3 is 3, and the absolute value of -3 is also 3...

 of the determinant
Determinant
In linear algebra, the determinant is a value associated with a square matrix. It can be computed from the entries of the matrix by a specific arithmetic expression, while other ways to determine its value exist as well...

 of the matrix formed by a set of translation vectors is the hypervolume of the n-dimensional parallelepiped
Parallelepiped
In geometry, a parallelepiped is a three-dimensional figure formed by six parallelograms. By analogy, it relates to a parallelogram just as a cube relates to a square. In Euclidean geometry, its definition encompasses all four concepts...

 the set subtends (also called the covolume of the lattice). This parallelepiped is a fundamental region of the symmetry: any pattern on or in it is possible, and this fully defines the whole object.
See also lattice (group)
Lattice (group)
In mathematics, especially in geometry and group theory, a lattice in Rn is a discrete subgroup of Rn which spans the real vector space Rn. Every lattice in Rn can be generated from a basis for the vector space by forming all linear combinations with integer coefficients...

.

E.g. in 2D, instead of a and b we can also take a and a − b, etc. In general in 2D, we can take pa + qb and ra + sb for integers p, q, r, and s such that ps − qr is 1 or −1. This ensures that a and b themselves are integer linear combinations of the other two vectors. If not, not all translations are possible with the other pair. Each pair a, b defines a parallelogram, all with the same area, the magnitude of the cross product
Cross product
In mathematics, the cross product, vector product, or Gibbs vector product is a binary operation on two vectors in three-dimensional space. It results in a vector which is perpendicular to both of the vectors being multiplied and normal to the plane containing them...

. One parallelogram fully defines the whole object. Without further symmetry, this parallelogram is a fundamental domain. The vectors a and b can be represented by complex numbers. For two given lattice points, equivalence of choices of a third point to generate a lattice shape is represented by the modular group
Modular group
In mathematics, the modular group Γ is a fundamental object of study in number theory, geometry, algebra, and many other areas of advanced mathematics...

, see lattice (group)
Lattice (group)
In mathematics, especially in geometry and group theory, a lattice in Rn is a discrete subgroup of Rn which spans the real vector space Rn. Every lattice in Rn can be generated from a basis for the vector space by forming all linear combinations with integer coefficients...

.

Alternatively, e.g. a rectangle may define the whole object, even if the translation vectors are not perpendicular, if it has two sides parallel to one translation vector, while the other translation vector starting at one side of the rectangle ends at the opposite side.

For example, consider a tiling with equal rectangular tiles with an asymmetric pattern on them, all oriented the same, in rows, with for each row a shift of a fraction, not one half, of a tile, always the same, then we have only translational symmetry, wallpaper group p1 (the same applies without shift). With rotational symmetry of order two of the pattern on the tile we have p2 (more symmetry of the pattern on the tile does not change that, because of the arrangement of the tiles). The rectangle is a more convenient unit to consider as fundamental domain (or set of two of them) than a parallelogram consisting of part of a tile and part of another one.

In 2D there may be translational symmetry in one direction for vectors of any length. One line, not in the same direction, fully defines the whole object. Similarly, in 3D there may be translational symmetry in one or two directions for vectors of any length. One plane (cross-section) or line, respectively, fully defines the whole object.

Text

An example of translational symmetry in one direction in 2D nr. 1) is:

Note: The example is not an example of rotational symmetry.

example example
example example
example example
example example

(get the same by moving one line down and two positions to the right), and of translational symmetry in two directions in 2D (wallpaper group p1):

* |* |* |* |
|* |* |* |*
|* |* |* |*
* |* |* |* |
|* |* |* |*
|* |* |* |*

(get the same by moving three positions to the right, or one line down and two positions to the right; consequently get also the same moving three lines down).

In both cases there is neither mirror-image symmetry nor rotational symmetry.

For a given translation of space we can consider the corresponding translation of objects. The objects with at least the corresponding translational symmetry are the fixed points
Fixed point (mathematics)
In mathematics, a fixed point of a function is a point that is mapped to itself by the function. A set of fixed points is sometimes called a fixed set...

 of the latter, not to be confused with fixed points of the translation of space, which are non-existent.

Calculus

  • The Fourier transform
    Fourier transform
    In mathematics, Fourier analysis is a subject area which grew from the study of Fourier series. The subject began with the study of the way general functions may be represented by sums of simpler trigonometric functions...

     with subsequent computation of absolute values is a translation-invariant operator.
  • The mapping from a polynomial function to the polynomial degree is a translation-invariant functional.
  • The Lebesgue measure
    Lebesgue measure
    In measure theory, the Lebesgue measure, named after French mathematician Henri Lebesgue, is the standard way of assigning a measure to subsets of n-dimensional Euclidean space. For n = 1, 2, or 3, it coincides with the standard measure of length, area, or volume. In general, it is also called...

     is a complete
    Complete measure
    In mathematics, a complete measure is a measure space in which every subset of every null set is measurable...

     translation-invariant measure
    Measure (mathematics)
    In mathematical analysis, a measure on a set is a systematic way to assign to each suitable subset a number, intuitively interpreted as the size of the subset. In this sense, a measure is a generalization of the concepts of length, area, and volume...

    .

See also

  • periodic function
    Periodic function
    In mathematics, a periodic function is a function that repeats its values in regular intervals or periods. The most important examples are the trigonometric functions, which repeat over intervals of length 2π radians. Periodic functions are used throughout science to describe oscillations,...

  • lattice (group)
    Lattice (group)
    In mathematics, especially in geometry and group theory, a lattice in Rn is a discrete subgroup of Rn which spans the real vector space Rn. Every lattice in Rn can be generated from a basis for the vector space by forming all linear combinations with integer coefficients...

  • rotational symmetry
    Rotational symmetry
    Generally speaking, an object with rotational symmetry is an object that looks the same after a certain amount of rotation. An object may have more than one rotational symmetry; for instance, if reflections or turning it over are not counted, the triskelion appearing on the Isle of Man's flag has...

  • Lorentz symmetry
  • tessellation
    Tessellation
    A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a pattern of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. One may also speak of tessellations of parts of the plane or of other surfaces. Generalizations to higher dimensions are also possible. Tessellations frequently appeared in the art...

  • mathematics of waves and cycles
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