The first-order flexibility of a crystal framework

Abstract

Four sets of necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for the first-order rigidity of a periodic bond-node framework \C in R^d which is of crystallographic type. In particular, an extremal rank characterisation is obtained which incorporates a multi-variable matrix-valued transfer function Ψ_\C(z) defined on the product space C^d_* = (C\{0})^d. In general the first-order flex space is shown to be the closed linear span of polynomially weighted geometric velocity fields whose geometric multi-factors in C^d_* lie in a finite set. Paradoxically, first-order rigid crystal frameworks may possess nontrivial nondifferentiable continuous motions. The examples given are associated with aperiodic displacive phase transitions between periodic states.

19 pages, 1 figure. Additional references given together with minor adjustments