Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Matrices whose entries belong to certain rings of algebraic integers can be associated with discrete groups of transformations of inversive $n$-space or hyperbolic $(n+1)-\text{space}\,{{\text{H}}^{n+1}}$. For small $n$, these may be Coxeter groups, generated by reflections, or certain subgroups whose generators include direct isometries of ${{\text{H}}^{n+1}}$. We show how linear fractional transformations over rings of rational and (real or imaginary) quadratic integers are related to the symmetry groups of regular tilings of the hyperbolic plane or 3-space. New light is shed on the properties of the rational modular group $\text{PS}{{\text{L}}_{2}}(\mathbb{Z})$, the Gaussian modular (Picard) group $\text{PS}{{\text{L}}_{2}}(\mathbb{Z}[i])$, and the Eisenstein modular group $\text{PS}{{\text{L}}_{2}}(\mathbb{Z}\left[ \omega \right])$.