A fundamental domain of a group in a topological G-set
is a closed subset
of
such that
is the union of conjugates of
, i.e.,
and the intersection of any two conjugates has no interior. The -action on
therefore covers
by the conjugates of
while permitting them to overlap only on sets with empty interior.
For example, a fundamental domain of the group of rotations by multiples of in
is the upper half-plane
and a fundamental domain
of rotations by multiples of
is the first quadrant
.
The concept of a fundamental domain is a generalization of a minimal group block, since while the intersection of fundamental domains has empty interior, the intersection of minimal blocks is the empty set.