Missing spots in low energy electron diffraction

Recent attempts to justify the use, after appropriate data averaging, of kinematical theory in surface structure determination by LEED, make it important to be able to distinguish truly kinematical features from those which can also be predicted from entirely general symmetry arguments. Such arguments are therefore developed formally into a set of rules determining the consequences of symmetry for LEED patterns. In particular the conditions for missing spots due to the presence of glide planes are given. It is pointed out that in some circumstances the isotropic scatterer model leads to spurious selection rules, that will not be satisfied in general.