Easily computable continuous metrics on the space of isometry classes of all 2-dimensional lattices
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A periodic lattice in Euclidean space is the infinite set of all integer linear combinations of basis vectors. Any lattice can be generated by infinitely many different bases. Motivated by rigid crystal structures, we consider lattices up to rigid motion or isometry, which preserves inter-point distances. Then all isometry classes of lattices form a continuous space. There are several parameterisations of this space in dimensions two and three, but this is the first which is not discontinuous in singular cases. We introduce new continuous coordinates (root products) on the space of lattices and new metrics between root forms satisfying all metric axioms and continuity under all perturbations. The root forms allow visualisations of hundreds of thousands of real crystal lattices from the Cambridge Structural Database for the first time.
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