Character table for the O point group

O       E       8 C3    3 C2    6 C4    6 C2'      <R> <p> <—d—> <——f——> <———g———> <————h————> <—————i—————> 
A1        1       1       1       1       1        ... ... ..... ....... T........ ........... T............
A2        1       1       1      -1      -1        ... ... ..... T...... ......... ........... .T...........
E         2      -1       2       0       0        ... ... TT... ....... .TT...... TT......... ..TT.........
T1        3       0      -1       1      -1        TTT TTT ..... ....TTT ...TTT... ..TTTTTT... ....TTT......
T2        3       0      -1      -1       1        ... ... ..TTT .TTT... ......TTT ........TTT .......TTTTTT


 Symmetry of Rotations and Cartesian products

A1   g+i+k+l+m                 x4+y4+z4, x2y2z2 
A2   f+i+j+l+m                 xyz, x4(y2z2)+y4(z2x2)+z4(x2y2) 
E    d+g+h+i+j+2k+l+2m         {x2y2, 2z2x2y2}, {x4y4, 2z4x4y4}, {xyz(x2y2), xyz(2z2x2y2)}, {2z6x6y6, x6y6} 
T1   R+p+f+g+2h+i+2j+2k+3l+2m  {Rx, Ry, Rz}, {x, y, z}, {x3, y3, z3}, {xy(x2y2), xz(x2z2), yz(y2z2)}, {x2y2z, x2yz2, xy2z2}, {x5, y5, z5}, {xy(x4y4), xz(x4z4), yz(y4z4)} 
T2   d+f+g+h+2i+2j+2k+2l+3m    {xy, xz, yz}, {x(z2y2), y(z2x2), z(x2y2)}, {x2yz, xy2z, xyz2}, {x(x4z4), y(x4z4), z(x4y4)}, {x4yz, xy4z, xyz4}, {x3y3, x3z3, y3z3} 

 Notes:

    α  The order of the O point group is 24, and the order of the principal axis (C4) is 4. The group has 5 irreducible representations.

    β  The O point group is isomorphic to Td. It is also isomorphic to the Symmetric Group Sym(4).

    γ  The O point group is generated by two symmetry elements, which can be chosen as two distinct C4 axes, or any C4 with any C3, or any C4 (or C3) with a non-orthogonal C2.

    δ  The lowest nonvanishing multipole moment in O is 16 (hexadecapole moment).

    ε  This point group is non-Abelian (some symmetry operations are not commutative).
       Therefore, the character table contains multi-membered classes and degenerate irreducible representations.

    ζ  The point group is chiral, as it does not contain any mirroring operation.

    η  This point group has several symmetry elements of order 3 or higher which are not coaxial.
       Therefore, it has at least three-dimensional irreducible representations.
       The symmetry described by this group may be called “isometric”, as the three Cartesian directions are degenerate.

    θ  This point group corresponds to cubic symmetry, because it is isometric but has no C5 axis. More precisely, it is octahedral because it has four-fold axes of rotation.
       Note that the form of the Cartesian products and their ordering in the table above are somewhat arbitrary.

    ι  All characters are integers because the order of the principal axis is 1,2,3,4 or 6.
       Such point groups are also referred to as “crystallographic point groups”, as they are compatible with periodic lattice symmetry.
       There are exactly 32 such groups: C1,Cs,Ci,C2,C2h,C2v,C3,C3h,C3v,C4,C4h,C4v,C6,C6h,C6v,D2,D2d,D2h,D3,D3d,D3h,D4,D4h,D6,D6h,S4,S6,T,Td,Th,O,Oh.

This Character Table for the O point group was created by Gernot Katzer.

For other groups and some explanations, see the Main Page.