ORIGINAL PAPER Palgrave, Robert and Tobin, Emma, When is a Lattice Not a Lattice? The changing meaning of the term lattice in crystallography and physics (June 1, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3857643 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3857643 DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3857643 Lyrics The concept of the lattice is central to the understanding of crystalline solids. However, usage of this word can very often differ between crystallographers, for whom a lattice is a mathematical object that describes the symmetry of a crystal, and physicists and chemists, for whom lattice is commonly used as a word for a regular array of particles. While crystals have been of interest to humankind since prehistory, in the past two centuries their study has transformed our conceptions of matter in 1913, Lawrence Bragg described diamond as having “two interpenetrating face-centred space lattices” What the writer has in mind is obviously the structure, but because of an incorrect shortcut, he calls it lattice. Let us now imagine the space lattice of a crystal hit by a wave. Each lattice point, i.e. every atom becomes the starting point of a spherical wave. in mathematics, precise definitions emerge after concepts have been described, and even used, for perhaps many years. In contrast in physical science, an operational definition, one that defines a concept by how it is to be measured, is seen as the strongest form Born defined lattice energy in 1918 and lattice dynamics in 1915 whereas the IUCr was founded in 1946. To close, we discuss the possible resolutions.
