Discovery of new quasicrystals from translation of hypercubic lattice

Abstract

How are the symmetries encoded in quasicrystals? As a compensation for the lack of translational symmetry, quasicrystals admit non-crystallographic symmetries such as 5- and 8-fold rotations in two-dimensional space. It is originated from the extended crystallography group of high-dimensional lattices and projection onto the physical space having a finite perpendicular window. One intriguing question is : How does the translation operation in high-dimension affect to the quasicrystals as a consequence of the projection? Here, we answer to this question and prove that a simple translation in four-dimensional hypercubic lattice completely determines a distinct rotational symmetry of two-dimensional quasicrystals. In details, by classifying translations in four-dimensional hypercubic lattice, new types of quasicrystals with 2,4 and 8-fold rotational symmetries are discussed. It gives us an important insight that a translation in high-dimensional lattice is intertwined with a rotational symmetry of the quasicrystals. In addition, regarding to the multi-frequency driven systems, it provides a unique way to discover new quasicrystals projected from the high-dimensional Floquet lattice.