Random tilings are interesting as idealizations of atomistic models of quasicrystals and for their connection to problems in combinatorics and algorithms. Of particular interest is the tiling entropy density, which measures the relation of the number of distinct tilings to the number of constituent tiles. Tilings by squares and 45 degree rhombi receive special attention as presumably the simplest model that has not yet been solved exactly in the thermodynamic limit. However, an exact enumeration formula can be evaluated for tilings in finite regions with fixed boundaries. We implement this algorithm in an efficient manner, enabling the investigation of larger regions of parameter space than previously were possible. Our new results appear to yield monotone increasing and decreasing lower and upper bounds on the fixed boundary entropy density that converge toward S = 0.36021(3).
We use the subgraph replacement method to prove a simple product formula for the tilings of an 8-vertex counterpart of Propp's quasi-hexagons (Problem 16 in New Perspectives in Geometric Combinatorics, Cambridge University Press, 1999), called quasi-octagon.
We show how to count tilings of Aztec diamonds and hexagons with defects using determinants. In several cases these determinants can be evaluated in closed form. In particular, we obtain solutions to problems 1, 2, and 10 in James Propp's list of problems on enumeration of matchings.
We study enumerations of Dyck and ballot tilings, which are tilings of a region determined by two Dyck or ballot paths. We give bijective proofs to two formulae of enumerations of Dyck tilings through Hermite histories. We show that one of the formulae is equal to a certain Kazhdan--Lusztig polynomial. For a ballot tiling, we establish formulae which are analogues of formulae for Dyck tilings. Especially, the generating functions have factorized expressions. The key tool is a planted plane tree and its increasing labellings. We also introduce a generalized perfect matching which is bijective t…
We $q$-enumerate lozenge tilings of a hexagon with three bowtie-shaped regions have been removed from three non-consecutive sides. The unweighted version of the result generalizes a problem posed by James Propp on enumeration of lozenge tilings of a hexagon of side-lengths $2n,2n+3,2n,2n+3,2n,2n+3$ (in cyclic order) with the central unit triangles on the $(2n+3)$-sides removed.
We compute the number of rhombus tilings of a hexagon with side lengths a,b,c,a,b,c which contain the central rhombus and the number of rhombus tilings of a hexagon with side lengths a,b,c,a,b,c which contain the `almost central` rhombus above the centre.
We use the subgraph replacement method to investigate new properties of the tilings of regions on the square lattice with diagonals drawn in. In particular, we show that the centrally symmetric tilings of a generalization of the Aztec diamond are always enumerated by a simple product formula. This result generalizes the previous work of Ciucu (1997) and Yang (1992) about symmetric tilings of the Aztec diamond. We also use our method to prove a closed-form product formula for the number of centrally symmetric tilings of a quasi-hexagon.
Helfgott and Gessel gave the number of domino tilings of an Aztec Rectangle with defects of size one on the boundary of one side. In this paper we extend this to the case of domino tilings of an Aztec Rectangle with defects on all boundary sides.
We generalize a theorem of W. Jockusch and J. Propp on quartered Aztec diamonds by enumerating the tilings of quartered Aztec rectangles. We use subgraph replacement method to transform the dual graph of a quartered Aztec rectangle to the dual graph of a quartered lozenge hexagon, and then use Lindström-Gessel-Viennot methodology to find the number of tilings of a quartered lozenge hexagon.
We solve and generalize an open problem posted by James Propp (Problem 16 in New Perspectives in Geometric Combinatorics, Cambridge University Press, 1999) on the number of tilings of quasi-hexagonal regions on the square lattice with every third diagonal drawn in. We also obtain a generalization of Douglas' Theorem on the number of tilings of a family of regions of the square lattice with every second diagonal drawn in.
We compute the number of rhombus tilings of a hexagon with sides $N,M,N,N,M,N$, which contain a fixed rhombus on the symmetry axis. A special case solves a problem posed by Jim Propp.
We generalize a special case of a theorem of Proctor on the enumeration of lozenge tilings of a hexagon with a maximal staircase removed, using Kuo's graphical condensation method. Additionally, we prove a formula for a weighted version of the given region. The result also extends work of Ciucu and Fischer. By applying the factorization theorem of Ciucu, we are also able to generalize a special case of MacMahon's boxed plane partition formula.
Enumeration of tilings is the mathematical study concerning the total number of coverings of regions by similar pieces without gaps or overlaps. Enumeration of tilings has become a vibrant subfield of combinatorics with connections and applications to diverse mathematical areas. In 1999, James Propp published his well-known list of 32 open problems in the field. The list has got much attention from experts around the world. After two decades, most of the problems on the list have been solved and generalized. In this paper, we propose a set of new tiling problems. This survey paper contributes …
We present determinant formulae for the number of tilings of various domains in relation with Alternating Sign Matrix and Fully Packed Loop enumeration.
MacMahon proved a simple product formula for the generating function of plane partitions fitting in a given box. The theorem implies a $q$-enumeration of lozenge tilings of a semi-regular hexagon on the triangular lattice. In this paper we generalize MacMahon's classical theorem by $q$-enumerating lozenge tilings of a new family of hexagons with four adjacent triangles removed from their boundary.
In their paper about a dual of MacMahon's classical theorem on plane partitions, Ciucu and Krattenthaler proved a closed form product formula for the tiling number of a hexagon with a "shamrock", a union of four adjacent triangles, removed in the center (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2013). Lai later presented a $q$-enumeration for lozenge tilings of a hexagon with a shamrock removed from the boundary (European J. Combin. 2017). It appears that the above are the only two positions of the shamrock hole that yield nice tiling enumerations. In this paper, we show that in the case of symmetric hexago…
Inspired by Propp's intruded Aztec diamond regions, we consider halved hexagons in which two aligned arrays of triangular holes have been removed from their boundaries. Unlike the intruded Aztec diamonds (whose numbers of domino tilings contain some large prime factors in their factorizations), the numbers of lozenge tilings of our doubly-intruded halved hexagons are given by simple product formulas in which all factors are linear in the parameters. In this paper, we present an extensive list of exact tiling enumerations of sixteen different types of doubly-intruded halved hexagons. We also pr…
Motivated by the enumeration of a class of plane partitions studied by Proctor and by considerations about symmetry classes of plane partitions, we consider the problem of enumerating lozenge tilings of a hexagon with ``maximal staircases'' removed from some of its vertices. The case of one vertex corresponds to Proctor's problem. For two vertices there are several cases to consider, and most of them lead to nice enumeration formulas. For three or more vertices there do not seem to exist nice product formulas in general, but in one special situation a lot of factorization occurs, and we pose t…
A rhombus tiling of a hexagon is said to be centered if it contains the central lozenge. We compute the number of vertically symmetric rhombus tilings of a hexagon with side lengths $a, b, a, a, b, a$ which are centered. When $a$ is odd and $b$ is even, this shows that the probability that a random vertically symmetric rhombus tiling of a $a, b, a, a, b, a$ hexagon is centered is exactly the same as the probability that a random rhombus tiling of a $a, b, a, a, b, a$ hexagon is centered. This also leads to a factorization theorem for the number of all rhombus tilings of a hexagon which are cen…
Rohatgi and the author recently proved a shuffling theorem for lozenge tilings of `doubly-dented hexagons' (arXiv:1905.08311). The theorem can be considered as a hybrid between two classical theorems in the enumeration of tilings: MacMahon's theorem about centrally symmetric hexagons and Cohn-Larsen-Prop's theorem about semihexagons with dents. In this paper, we consider a similar shuffling theorem for the centrally symmetric tilings of the doubly-dented hexagons. Our theorem also implies a conjecture posed by the author in arXiv:1803.02792 about the enumeration of centrally symmetric tilings …
We deal with unweighted and weighted enumerations of lozenge tilings of a hexagon with side lengths $a,b+m,c,a+m,b,c+m$, where an equilateral triangle of side length $m$ has been removed from the center. We give closed formulas for the plain enumeration and for a certain $(-1)$-enumeration of these lozenge tilings. In the case that $a=b=c$, we also provide closed formulas for certain weighted enumerations of those lozenge tilings that are cyclically symmetric. For $m=0$, the latter formulas specialize to statements about weighted enumerations of cyclically symmetric plane partitions. One such …
In the prequel of the paper (arXiv:1803.02792), we considered exact enumerations of the cored versions of a doubly-intruded hexagon. The result generalized Ciucu's work about $F$-cored hexagons (Adv. Math. 2017). In this paper, we provide an extensive list of 30 tiling enumerations of hexagons with three collinear chains of triangular holes with alternating orientations. Besides two chains of holes attaching to the boundary of the hexagon, we remove one more chain of triangles that is slightly off the center of the hexagon. Two of our enumerations imply two conjectures posed by Ciucu, Eisenköl…
Proctor proved a formula for the number of lozenge tilings of a hexagon with side-lengths $a,b,c,a,b,c$ after removing a "maximal staircase." Ciucu then presented a weighted version of Proctor's result. Here we present weighted and unweighted formulas for a similar region which has an additional unit triangle removed. We use Kuo's graphical condensation method to prove the results. By applying the factorization theorem of Ciucu, we obtain a formula for the number of lozenge tilings of a hexagon with three holes on consecutive edges.
We evaluate the determinant $\det_{1\leq i,j\leq n}(\binom{x+y+j}{x-i+2j}-\binom{x+y+j}{x+i+2j})$, which gives the number of lozenge tilings of a hexagon with cut off corners. A particularly interesting feature of this evaluation is that it requires the proof of a certain hypergeometric identity which we accomplish by using Gosper's algorithm in a non-automatic fashion.
In their 2002 paper, Ciucu and Krattenthaler proved several product formulas for the number of lozenge tilings of various regions obtained from a centrally symmetric hexagon on the triangular lattice by removing maximal staircase regions from two non-adjacent corners. For the case when the staircases are removed from adjacent corners of the hexagon, they presented two conjectural formulas, whose proofs, as they remarked, seemed at the time "a formidable task". In this paper we prove those two conjectures. Our proofs proceed by first generalizing the conjectures, and then proving them by induct…
MacMahon's theorem on plane partitions yields a simple product formula for tiling number of a hexagon, and Cohn, Larsen and Propp's theorem provides an explicit enumeration for tilings of a dented semihexagon via semi-strict Gelfand--Tsetlin patterns. In this paper, we prove a natural hybrid of the two theorems for hexagons with an arbitrary set of unit triangles removed along a horizontal axis. In particular, we show that the `shuffling' of removed unit triangles only changes the tiling number of the region by a simple multiplicative factor. Our main result generalizes a number of known enume…
Proctor's work on staircase plane partitions yields an enumeration of lozenge tilings of a halved hexagon on the triangular lattice. Rohatgi recently extended this tiling enumeration to a halved hexagon with a triangle removed from the boundary. In this paper we prove a generalization of the results of Proctor and Rohatgi by enumerating lozenge tilings of a halved hexagon in which an array of adjacent triangles has been removed from the boundary.
In their unpublished work, Jockusch and Propp showed that a 2-enumeration of antisymmetric monotone triangles is given by a simple product formula. On the other hand, the author proved that the same formula counts the domino tilings of the quartered Aztec rectangle. In this paper, we explain this phenomenon directly by building a correspondence between the antisymmetric monotone triangles and domino tilings of the quartered Aztec rectangle.
In this paper we enumerate the centrally symmetric lozenge tilings of a hexagon with a fern removed from its center. The proof is based on a variant of Kuo's graphical condensation method. An unexpected connection with the total number of tilings is established~---~when suitably normalized, the number of centrally symmetric tilings is equal to the square root of the total number of tilings. The results we present can be regarded as a new extension of the enumeration of self-complementary plane partitions that fit in a box.
In a recent paper, Byun presented nice formulas for the enumeration of lozenge tilings of certain hexagonal regions with intrusions. This paper attempts to generalise some of Byun's investigations.
In a recent preprint, Lai worked out the quotient of generating functions of weighted lozenge tilings of two "half hexagons with lateral dents" which differ only in width. Lai achieved this by using "graphical condensation" (i.e., application of a certain Pfaffian identity to the weighted enumeration of matchings). The purpose of this note is to exhibit how this can be done by the Lindström--Gessel--Viennot method for nonintersecting lattice paths in a quite simple way. Basically the same observation, but restricted to mere enumeration (i.e., all weights of lozenge tilings are equal to $1$), i…
We consider tilings of quadriculated regions by dominoes and of triangulated regions by lozenges. We present an overview of results concerning tileability, enumeration and the structure of the space of tilings.
We obtain an explicit formula for a certain weighted enumeration of lozenge tilings of a hexagon with an arbitrary triangular hole. The complexity of our expression depends on the distance from the hole to the center of the hexagon. This proves and generalizes conjectures of Ciucu et al., who considered the case of plain enumeration when the triangle is located at or very near the center. Our proof uses Askey-Wilson polynomials as a tool to relate discrete and continuous Selberg-type integrals.
Proctor's work on staircase plane partitions yields an enumeration of lozenge tilings of a halved hexagon on the triangular lattice. Rohatgi later extended this tiling enumeration to a halved hexagon with a triangle cut off from the boundary. In the previous paper, the author proved a common generalization of Proctor's and Rohatgi's results by enumerating lozenge tilings of a halved hexagon in the case an array of an arbitrary number of triangles has been removed from a non-staircase side. In this paper, we consider the other case when the array of triangles has been removed from the staircase…
MacMahon enumerated the plane partitions in an $a \times b \times c$ box. These are in bijection to lozenge tilings of a hexagon, to certain perfect matchings, and to families of non-intersecting lattice paths. In this work we consider more general regions, called triangular regions, and establish signed versions of the latter three bijections. Indeed, we use perfect matchings and families of non-intersecting lattice paths to define two signs of a lozenge tiling. A combinatorial argument involving a new method, called resolution of a puncture, then shows that the signs are in fact equivalent. …
In a recent preprint, Lai showed that the quotient of generating functions of weighted lozenge tilings of two "half hexagons with lateral dents", which differ only in width, factors nicely, and the same is true for the quotient of generating functions of weighted lozenge tilings of two "quarter hexagons with lateral dents". Lai achieved this by using "graphical condensation" (i.e., application of a certain Pfaffian identity to the weighted enumeration of matchings). The purpose of this note is to exhibit how this can be done by the Lindström--Gessel--Viennot method for nonintersecting lattice …
We consider Kasteleyn and Kasteleyn-Percus matrices, which arise in enumerating matchings of planar graphs, up to matrix operations on their rows and columns. If such a matrix is defined over a principal ideal domain, this is equivalent to considering its Smith normal form or its cokernel. Many variations of the enumeration methods result in equivalent matrices. In particular, Gessel-Viennot matrices are equivalent to Kasteleyn-Percus matrices. We apply these ideas to plane partitions and related planar of tilings. We list a number of conjectures, supported by experiments in Maple, about the f…
In this paper we present a combinatorial generalization of the fact that the number of plane partitions that fit in a $2a\times b\times b$ box is equal to the number of such plane partitions that are symmetric, times the number of such plane partitions for which the transpose is the same as the complement. We use the equivalent phrasing of this identity in terms of symmetry classes of lozenge tilings of a hexagon on the triangular lattice. Our generalization consists of allowing the hexagon have certain symmetrically placed holes along its horizontal symmetry axis. The special case when there …
It has been proven that the lozenge tilings of a quartered hexagon on the triangular lattice are enumerated by a simple product formula. In this paper we give a new proof for the tiling formula by using Kuo's graphical condensation. Our result generalizes a Proctor's theorem on enumeration of plane partitions contained in a "maximal staircase".
We investigate a new family of regions that is the universal generalization of three well-known region families in the field of enumeration of tilings: the quasi-regular hexagons, the semi-hexagons, and the halved hexagons. We prove a simple product formula for the number of tilings of these new regions. Our main result also yields the enumerations of two special classes of plane partitions with restricted parts.
The expanded Aztec diamond is a generalized version of the Aztec diamond, with an arbitrary number of long columns and long rows in the middle. In this paper, we count the number of domino tilings of the expanded Aztec diamond. The exact number of domino tilings is given by recurrence relations of state matrices by virtue of the state matrix recursion algorithm, recently developed by the author to solve various two-dimensional regular lattice model enumeration problems.
It is well-known that plane partitions, lozenge tilings of a hexagon, perfect matchings on a honeycomb graph, and families of non-intersecting lattice paths in a hexagon are all in bijection. In this work we consider regions that are more general than hexagons. They are obtained by further removing upward-pointing triangles. We call the resulting shapes triangular regions. We establish signed versions of the latter three bijections for triangular regions. We first investigate the tileability of triangular regions by lozenges. Then we use perfect matchings and families of non-intersecting latti…
In arXiv:1905.08311, the author and Rohatgi proved a shuffling theorem for doubly-dented hexagons. In particular, we showed that shuffling removed unit triangles along a horizontal axis in a hexagon only changes the tiling number by a simple multiplicative factor. In this paper, we consider a similar phenomenon for a symmetry class of tilings, the reflectively symmetric tilings, of the doubly-dented hexagons. We also prove several shuffling theorems for halved hexagons. These theorems generalize a number of known results in the enumeration of halved hexagons.
We show that the number of configurations of the 20 Vertex model on certain domains with domain wall type boundary conditions is equal to the number of domino tilings of Aztec-like triangles, proving a conjecture from [P. Di Francesco and E. Guitter, Twenty-Vertex Model with Domain Wall Boundaries and Domino Tilings, Elec. Jour. of Combinatorics 27 (2020), no. 2, P2.13]. The result is based on the integrability of the 20 Vertex model and uses a connection to the U-turn boundary 6 Vertex model to re-express the number of 20 Vertex configurations as a simple determinant, which is then related to…
The $k$-tiling problem for a convex polytope $P$ is the problem of covering $\mathbb R^d$ with translates of $P$ using a discrete multiset $Λ$ of translation vectors, such that every point in $\mathbb R^d$ is covered exactly $k$ times, except possibly for the boundary of $P$ and its translates. A classical result in the study of tiling problems is a theorem of McMullen that a convex polytope $P$ that 1-tiles $\mathbb R^d$ with a discrete multiset $Λ$ can, in fact, 1-tile $\mathbb R^d$ with a lattice $\mathcal L$. A generalization of McMullen's theorem for $k$-tiling was conjectured by Gravin, …
We introduce a natural correspondence between artinian monomial almost complete intersections in three variables and punctured hexagonal regions. We use this correspondence to investigate the algebras for the presence of the weak Lefschetz property. In particular, we relate the field characteristics in which such an algebra fails to have the weak Lefschetz property to the prime divisors of the enumeration of signed lozenge tilings of the associated punctured hexagonal region. On the one side this allows us to establish the weak Lefschetz property in many new cases. For numerous classes of punc…
The enumeration of lozenge tilings of hexagons with holes has received much attention during the last three decades. One notable feature is that a lot of the recent development involved Kuo's graphical condensation. Motivated by Ciucu, Lai and Rohatgi's work on tilings of hexagons with a removed triad of bowties, in this paper, we show that the ratio of numbers of lozenge tilings of two more general regions is expressed as a simple product formula. Our proof does not involve the graphical condensation method. The proof is short and direct. We also provide a corresponding formula for cyclically…
We investigate the connection between lozenge tilings and domino tilings by introducing a new family of regions obtained by attaching two different Aztec rectangles. We prove a simple product formula for the generating functions of the tilings of the new regions, which involves the statistics as in the Aztec diamond theorem (Elkies, Kuperberg, Larsen, and Propp, J. Algebraic Combin. 1992). Moreover, we consider the connection between the generating function and MacMahon's $q$-enumeration of plane partitions fitting in a given box
We compute the number of rhombus tilings of a hexagon with sides $a+2,b+2,c+2,a+2,b+2,c+2$ with three fixed tiles touching the border. The particular case $a=b=c$ solves a problem posed by Propp. Our result can also be viewed as the enumeration of plane partitions having $a+2$ rows and $b+2$ columns, with largest entry $\le c+2$, with a given number of entries $c+2$ in the first row, a given number of entries 0 in the last column and a given bottom-left entry.
