Symmetry groups of single-wall nanotubes.

This work investigates the symmetry properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes and their structural analogs, which are nanotubes consisting of different kinds of atoms. The symmetry group of a nanotube is studied by looking at symmetries and color fixing symmetries associated with a coloring of the tiling by hexagons in the Euclidean plane which, when rolled, gives rise to a geometric model of the nanotube. The approach is also applied to nanotubes with non-hexagonal symmetry arising from other isogonal tilings of the plane.