Incorporating particle symmetry into orientation determination in single-particle imaging.

In coherent-diffraction-imaging experiments X-ray diffraction patterns of identical particles are recorded. The particles are injected into the X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) beam in random orientations. If the particle has symmetry, finding the orientation of a pattern can be ambiguous. With some modifications, the correlation-maximization method can find the relative orientations of the diffraction patterns for the case of symmetric particles as well. After convergence, the correlation maps show the symmetry of the particle and can be used to determine the symmetry elements and their orientations. The C factor, slightly modified for the symmetric case, can indicate the consistency of the assembled three-dimensional intensity distribution.