Proper rotation ($R^{T}R=I,\det R=1$)

An orientation-preserving orthogonal transformation. In three dimensions it has an invariant axis and acts as a planar rotation through angle $\theta$ perpendicular to that axis. Its eigenvalues are $1,e^{i\theta },e^{-i\theta }$, so $\mathrm{tr}R=1+2\cos \theta$. In higher dimensions a proper rotation can involve several mutually orthogonal planes and need not fix an axis.