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Concept
Triangle group
Summary
In mathematics, a triangle group is a group that can be realized geometrically by sequences of reflections across the sides of a triangle. The triangle can be an ordinary Euclidean triangle, a triangle on the sphere, or a hyperbolic triangle. Each triangle group is the symmetry group of a tiling of the Euclidean plane, the sphere, or the hyperbolic plane by congruent triangles called Möbius triangles, each one a fundamental domain for the action.
Let l, m, n be integers greater than or equal to 2. A triangle group Δ(l,m,n) is a group of motions of the Euclidean plane, the two-dimensional sphere, the real projective plane, or the hyperbolic plane generated by the reflections in the sides of a triangle with angles π/l, π/m and π/n (measured in radians). The product of the reflections in two adjacent sides is a rotation by the angle which is twice the angle between those sides, 2π/l, 2π/m and 2π/n. Therefore, if the generating reflections are labeled a, b, c and the angles between them in the cyclic order are as given above, then the following relations hold:
It is a theorem that all other relations between a, b, c are consequences of these relations and that Δ(l,m,n) is a discrete group of motions of the corresponding space. Thus a triangle group is a reflection group that admits a group presentation
An abstract group with this presentation is a Coxeter group with three generators.
Given any natural numbers l, m, n > 1 exactly one of the classical two-dimensional geometries (Euclidean, spherical, or hyperbolic) admits a triangle with the angles (π/l, π/m, π/n), and the space is tiled by reflections of the triangle. The sum of the angles of the triangle determines the type of the geometry by the Gauss–Bonnet theorem: it is Euclidean if the angle sum is exactly π, spherical if it exceeds π and hyperbolic if it is strictly smaller than π. Moreover, any two triangles with the given angles are congruent. Each triangle group determines a tiling, which is conventionally colored in two colors, so that any two adjacent tiles have opposite colors.
Official source
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