APPENDIX AOverview of group representations

In this section we briefly introduce the representation theory of the three groups we used in this work. Planar rotations group SO(2) The standard representation of r 2 SO(2) is as a 2 2 rotation matrix (r)= cos sin sin cos The complex irreducible representations are often used and correspond to the circular harmonics. Planar rotations and reflections group O(2) The standard representation of O(2) is as a 2 2 orthogonal matrix (r)= cos sin sin cos and (r f)= cos sin sin cos 10 01 Apart from the trivial representation 0,0(h)=1 8h 2 O(2) and the sign-flip representation 1,0(r)=1 and 1,0(f)= 1, all other irreps are 2 dimensional. These representations are isomorphic to the Wigner D matrices. In particular, 0 is the trivial representation and i is isomorphic to the standard representation of SO(3) as 3 3 rotation matrices. An element g =( m,r) 2 O(3) is a pair of a mirroring m 2{ e,mz} and a rotation r 2 SO(3). In general, if G is a group, we denote with bG the set of its irreducible representations. Recall the generative process for cryo-EM images: oi = (g 1i) with gi 2 SO(3) (12) 14 Let Rz = SO(2) < SO(3) the subgroup of SO(3) containing rotations around the Z axis and H = O(2) < SO(3) the subgroup containing also the rotation ry by around the Y axis.