  Correct identification of the Bravais lattice of a crystal is an important
step in structure solution. Niggli reduction is a commonly used technique. We
investigate the boundary polytopes of the Niggli-reduced cone in the
six-dimensional space G6 by algebraic analysis and organized random probing of
regions near 1- through 8-fold boundary polytope intersections. We limit
consideration of boundary polytopes to those avoiding the mathematically
interesting but crystallographically impossible cases of 0 length cell edges.
Combinations of boundary polytopes without a valid intersection in the closure
of the Niggli cone or with an intersection that would force a cell edge to 0 or
without neighboring probe points are eliminated. 216 boundary polytopes are
found: 15 5-D boundary polytopes of the full G6 Niggli cone, 53 4-D boundary
polytopes resulting from intersections of pairs of the 15 5-D boundary
polytopes, 79 3-D boundary polytopes resulting from 2-fold, 3-fold and 4-fold
intersections of the 15 5-D boundary polytopes, 55 2-D boundary polytopes
resulting from 2-fold, 3-fold, 4-fold and higher intersections of the 15 5-D
boundary polytopes, 14 1-D boundary polytopes resulting from 3-fold and higher
intersections of the 15 5-D boundary polytopes. All primitive lattice types can
be represented as combinations of the 15 5-D boundary polytopes. All
non-primitive lattice types can be represented as combinations of the 15 5-D
boundary polytopes and of the 7 special-position subspaces of the 5-D boundary
polytopes. This study provides a new, simpler and arguably more intuitive basis
set for the classification of lattice characters and helps to illuminate some
of the complexities in Bravais lattice identification. The classification is
intended to help in organizing database searches and in understanding which
lattice symmetries are "close" to a given experimentally determined cell.
