Reidun (2014) 'Viruses and fullerenes -symmetry as a common thread ?', Acta crystallographica A., 70 (2). pp. 162-167. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S2053273313034220Publisher's copyright statement:Additional information:Deposited paper was the cover article for the March issue of this journal.
Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Author(s) of this paper may load this reprint on their own web site or institutional repository provided that this cover page is retained. Republication of this article or its storage in electronic databases other than as specified above is not permitted without prior permission in writing from the IUCr.For further information see http://journals.iucr.org/services/authorrights.html Acta Crystallographica Section A: Foundations and Advances publishes articles reporting f undamental advances in all areas of crystallography in the broadest sense. This includes metacrystals such as photonic or phononic crystals, i.e. structures on the mesoor macroscale that can be studied with crystallographic methods. The central themes are, on the one hand, experimental and theoretical studies of the properties and arrangements of atoms, ions and molecules in condensed matter, periodic, quasiperiodic or amorphous, ideal or real, and, on the other, the theoretical and experimental aspects of the various methods to determine these properties and arrangements. In the case of metacrystals, the focus is on the methods for their creation and on the structure-property relationships for their interaction with classical waves. The principle of affine symmetry is applied here to the nested fullerene cages (carbon onions) that arise in the context of carbon chemistry. Previous work on affine extensions of the icosahedral group has revealed a new organizational principle in virus structure and assembly. This group-theoretic framework is adapted here to the physical requirements dictated by carbon chemistry, and it is shown that mathematical models for carbon onions can be derived within this affine symmetry approach. This suggests the applicability of affine symmetry in a wider context in nature, as well as offering a novel perspective on the geometric principles underpinning carbon chemistry.