Full Symmetry of Single- and Multi-wall Nanotubes

Abstract

The full symmetry groups for all single- and multi-wall carbon nanotubes are found. As for the single-wall tubes, the symmetries form nonabelian nonsymorphic line groups, enlarging the groups reported in literature. In the multi-wall case, any type of the line and the axial point groups can be obtained, depending on single-wall constituents and their relative position. Several other consequences are discussed: quantum numbers and related selection rules, electronic and phonon bands, and their degeneracy, application to tensor properties.