Symmetry adapted functions belonging to the dirac groups

Abstract An earlier analysis of the canonical form of a pair of invertible operators obeying the exchange rule is extended to cover a set of operators, between each pair of which a relation of this type exists; and for which a power of each operator is the unit matrix. Such relations define a system which may be regarded as a generalization of the Dirac matrices of relativistic quantum mechanics. We concentrate upon the group theoretic aspects of such a system and its matrix representations. Applications arise from the fact that all projective representations of finite abelian groups take the form of a Dirac Group. In particular, the representations of the magnetic space groups, which are projective representations of the lattice groups, arise in this manner.