Pin group
In mathematics, the pin group is a certain subgroup of the Clifford algebra associated to a quadratic space. It maps 2-to-1 to the orthogonal group, just as the spin group maps 2-to-1 to the special orthogonal group.
In general the map from the Pin group to the orthogonal group is not onto or a universal covering space, but if the quadratic form is definite (and dimension is greater than 2), it is both.
The non-trivial element of the kernel is denoted −1, which should not be confused with the orthogonal transform of reflection through the origin, generally denoted −I.
General definition
Definite form
The pin group of a definite form maps onto the orthogonal group, and each component is simply connected: it double covers the orthogonal group. The pin groups for a positive definite quadratic form Q and for its negative −Q are not isomorphic, but the orthogonal groups are.
In terms of the standard forms, O(n, 0) = O(0,n), but Pin(n, 0) and Pin(0, n) are not isomorphic. Using the "+" sign convention for Clifford algebras (where
), one writes