title: Effects of merohedric twinning on the diffraction pattern.
abstract: In merohedric twinning, the lattices of the individuals are perfectly overlapped and the presence of twinning is not easily detected from the diffraction pattern, especially in the case of inversion twinning (class I). In general, the investigator has to consider three possible structural models: a crystal with space-group type H and point group P, either untwinned (H model) or twinned through an operation t in vector space (t-H model), and an untwinned crystal with space group G whose point group P' is obtained as an extension of P through the twin operation t (G model). In 71 cases, consideration of the reflection conditions may directly rule out the G model; in seven other cases the reflection conditions suggest a space group which does not correspond to the extension of H by the twin operation and the structure solution or at least the refinement will fail. When the twin operation belongs to a different crystal family (class IIB twinning: the crystal has a specialized metric), the presence of twinning can often be recognized by the peculiar effect it has on the reflection conditions.
authors.affiliation: Université de Lorraine, Faculté des Sciences et Technologies, Institut Jean Barriol FR 2843, CRM2 UMR CNRS 7036, BP 70239, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, F-54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nespolo
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Torino, via Valperga Caluso 35, I-10125 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ferraris
authors.affiliation: Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics, Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Computing Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, Postbus 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Souvignier
keywords: diffraction symmetry; merohedric twinning; reflection conditions