Contents

Idea

By a finite rotation group one means a finite subgroup of a group of rotations, hence of a special orthogonal group $SO(n)$ or spin group $Spin(n)$ or similar.

The finite subgroups of SO(3) and SU(2) follow an ADE classification (theorem below).

Classifications

Finite subgroups of $O(3)$, $SO(3)$ and $Spin(3)$

This goes back to (Klein 1884, chapter I). Full proof for $SO(3)$ is spelled out for instance in (Rees 05, theorem 11, De Visscher 11). The proof for the case of $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ is spelled out in (Miller-Blichfeldt-Dickson 16) reviewed in (Serrano 14, section 2). The proof of the case for $SU(2)$ given the result for $SO(3)$ is spelled out in Keenan 03, theorem 4.

Finite subgroups of $O(4)$, SO(4) and Spin(4)

For classification of the finite subgroups of $O(4)$ see (duVal 65, Conway-Smith 03)

For finite subgroups of Spin(4): MFF 12, appendix B.

In this classification, the symmetry group of the 120-cell and hence that of the 600-cell is the quotient group $(2 I \times 2 I)/\mathbb{Z}_2$ by the cyclic group of order 2 of the direct product group of two copies of the binary icosahedral group (SadocMosseri 89, p. 172, see MFF 12, table 16).

Finite subgroups of $O(5)$

For classification of the finite subgroups of $O(5)$ see Mecchia-Zimmermann 10

Properties

Subgroup lattice

The subgroup lattice of SU(2) under the three exceptional finite subgroups 2T, 2O, 2I (from Theorem ) looks as follows:

This is obtained from the subgroup lattice as shown on GroupNames for $2I \simeq$ SL(2,5) and $2O \simeq$ CSU(2,3)

See also Goncalves-Guaschi 11, appendix.

Group cohomology

This general statement is summarized in Epa & Ganter 16, p. 12. A detailed proof for the case of cyclic groups is spelled out in BSST 07, Lem. 4.51. The three exceptional cases are worked out in explicit detail in Tomoda & Zvengrowski 08, Section 4. The vanishing of $H^3(G_{ADE},\mathbb{Z}) = H^2(G_{ADE}, \mathbb{C}^\times)$ is also FHHP 01, Cor. 3.1.

This is equivalently the statement of Epa & Ganter 16, Prop. 4.1, whose proof is analogous to that of Lemma 3.1 there, where the analogue of (3) is the top left square of the commuting diagram on p. 11.

Related concepts

• regular polytope, regular polyhedron

• ADE singularity

• McKay correspondence

• Platonic 2-group

• wallpaper group

References

Finite subgroups of $SO(3)$ and $Spin(3)$

The classification in Theorem goes back to

• Felix Klein, chapter I of Vorlesungen über das Ikosaeder und die Auflösung der Gleichungen vom fünften Grade, 1884, translated as Lectures on the Icosahedron and the Resolution of Equations of Degree Five by George Morrice 1888, online version

Expository review of the argument in Klein 1884:

• Marjorie Senechal, Finding the Finite Groups of Symmetries of the Sphere, The American Mathematical Monthly 97 4 (1990) 329-335 (jstor:2324519)

Textbook accounts:

• G. A. Miller, H. F. Blichfeldt, Leonard E. Dickson, Theory and applications of finite groups, Dover, New York, 1916 (ark:/13960/t0ht2kb4x)

• Klaus Lamotke, Regular Solids and Isolated Singularities, Vieweg 1986 (doi:10.1007/978-3-322-91767-6)

• Elmer Rees, Notes on Geometry, Springer 2005

see also

• Javier Carrasco Serrano, Finite subgroups of $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ and $SL(3,\mathbb{C})$, Warwick 2014 (pdf)

Complete proof of the classification of the finite subgroups of $SO(3)$ is also spelled out in

• Maud De Visscher, Groups and Symmetry lecture notes handout: Classification of finite rotation groups (pdf)

Based on the classification of the finite subgroups of $SO(3)$, full proof of that of the finite subgroups of $SU(2)$ is spelled out in

• Adam Keenan, Which finite groups act freely on spheres?, 2003 (pdf)

See also

• Groupprops, Classification of finite subgroups of SO(3,R)

Discussion of the lattice of subgroups of the three exceptional subgroups is in

• Daciberg Lima Gonçalves, John Guaschi, The Subgroups of the Binary Polyhedral Groups, Appendix of The classification of the virtually cyclic subgroups of the sphere braid groups, Springer (Ed.) (2013) 112 (arXiv:1110.6628, pdf)

Discussion of the group cohomology:

• Satoshi Tomoda, Peter Zvengrowski, Remarks on the cohomology of finite fundamental groups of 3-manifolds, Geom. Topol. Monogr. 14 (2008) 519-556 (arXiv:0904.1876)

see also

• Bo Feng, Amihay Hanany, Yang-Hui He, Nikolaos Prezas, Cor. 3.1 in: Discrete Torsion, Non-Abelian Orbifolds and the Schur Multiplier, JHEP 0101:033, 2001 (arXiv:hep-th/0010023)

The universal higher central extension of finite subgroups of $SU(2)$ (“Platonic 2-groups”) are discussed in

• Narthana Epa, Nora Ganter, Platonic and alternating 2-groups, Higher Structures 1(1):122-146, 2017 (arXiv:1605.09192)

Finite subgroups of $O(4)$

• Patrick du Val, Homographies, Quaternions and Rotations, Oxford Mathematical Monographs, Clarendon Press (1964)

  also(?): Journal of the London Mathematical Society, Volume s1-40, Issue 1 (1965) (doi:10.1112/jlms/s1-40.1.569b)

• John Conway, D. A. Smith, On quaternions and octonions: their geometry, arithmetic and symmetry, A K Peters Ltd., Natick, MA, 2003

• Paul de Medeiros, José Figueroa-O'Farrill, appendix B of Half-BPS M2-brane orbifolds, Adv. Theor. Math. Phys. Volume 16, Number 5 (2012), 1349-1408. (arXiv:1007.4761, Euclid)

• J. F. Sadoc, R. Mosseri, Icosahedral order, curved space and quasicrystals, in Jaric, Gratias (eds.) Extended icosahedral structures, 1989 (GoogleBooks)

Finite subgroups of $O(5)$

• Mattia Mecchia, Bruno Zimmermann, On finite groups acting on homology 4-spheres and finite subgroups of $SO(5)$, Topology and its Applications 158.6 (2011): 741-747 (arXiv:1001.3976)