Are planar symmetry groups and wallpaper groups the same things

group-theoryplane-geometrysymmetryterminology

This is a fairly basic question and an answer will help me make sense as I continue to read up on this topic.

I need to learn about 2D symmetry groups in the context of crystallography and surface science.

I've found two Wikipedia pages:

Both groups have 17 members and they have the same IUC names.

Question: Are these two articles about two different applications (or users) of the same thing, or are planar symmetry groups and wallpaper groups different in some way? For example, can one be applied to dimension number different than 2 and the other can't?


Further material that might be helpful for reference…

Symmetry groups:

Wallpaper groups:

Best Answer

The list of planar symmetry groups contains the $17$ wallpaper groups ($2$-dimensional crystallographic groups), but also $7$ frieze groups and $2$ families of rosette groups in addition.

The symmetry groups listed are the classes of discrete symmetry groups of the Euclidean plane. The crystallographic ones are cocompact, i.e., $\Bbb R^2/\Gamma$ is compact, where $\Gamma$ is a discrete subgroup of $Isom(\Bbb R^2)$. These are called wallpaper groups and the classification up to abstract isomorphism (or conjugacy in the affine group) yields $17$ different groups.

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