The two minor symmetries of the elastic stiffness tensor make it a map between six-dimensional spaces of symmetric strain and stress. An elastic energy gives major symmetry, so the matrix of this map is symmetric and has 21 independent entries. For a symmetry operation acting on strains with parity spaces of dimensions and , invariance eliminates the mixed block and leaves independent coefficients.
A rotation through about the third coordinate axis preserves the strain components and reverses . A symmetry-invariant elastic stiffness tensor cannot couple the two parity spaces. Its independent symmetric blocks therefore contain coefficients. A twofold axis alone does not impose invariance under every rotation about that axis.
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