SOLIDS & SURFACES PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY

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lattice

1. (MATH) A periodic arrangement of points such as the vertices of a tiling of space by cubes or the positions of atoms in a crystal. More technically, a discrete Abelian subgroup of an n-dimensional vector space which not contained in an (n-1)-dimensional vector space. Lattices play a central role in the theory of Lie groups, in number theory, in error-correcting codes, and many other areas of mathematics. A lattice is often, but not always, distinguished from a graph in that a lattice is a graph with a regular structure.


2. (CHEMISTRY) A regular network of fixed points about which molecules, atoms, or ions vibrate in a crystal.

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