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definition. Spin group [fulton2013representation] [spin-000O]

Instead of defining the spin group as the set of products of certain elements of \(V\), it will be convenient to start with a more abstract definition. Set \[ \operatorname {Spin}(Q)=\left \{x \in C(Q)^{\text {even }}: x \cdot x^*=1 \text { and } x \cdot V \cdot x^* \subset V\right \} \text {. } \] We see from this definition that \(\operatorname {Spin}(Q)\) forms a closed subgroup of the group of units in the (even) Clifford algebra. Any \(x\) in \(\operatorname {Spin}(Q)\) determines an endomorphism \(\rho (x)\) of \(V\) by \[ \rho (x)(v)=x \cdot v \cdot x^*, \quad v \in V . \] Define a larger subgroup, this time of the multiplicative group of \(C(Q)\), by \[ \operatorname {Pin}(Q)=\left \{x \in C(Q): x \cdot x^*=1 \text { and } x \cdot V \cdot x^* \subset V\right \}, \] and define a homomorphism \[ \rho : \operatorname {Pin}(Q) \rightarrow \mathrm {O}(Q), \quad \rho (x)(v)=\alpha (x) \cdot v \cdot x^*, \] where \(\alpha : C(O) \rightarrow C(O)\) is the main involution.