A theorem of Gao, Jackson and Seward, originally conjectured to be false by Glasner and Uspenskij, asserts that every countable group admits a $2$-coloring. A direct consequence of this result is that every countable group has a strongly aperiodic subshift on the alphabet $\{0,1\}$. In this article, we use Lovász local lemma to first give a new simple proof of said theorem, and second to prove the existence of a $G$-effectively closed strongly aperiodic subshift for any finitely generated group $G$. We also study the problem of constructing subshifts which generalize a property of Sturmian sequences to finitely generated groups. More precisely, a subshift over the alphabet $\{0,1\}$ has uniform density $α\in [0,1]$ if for every configuration the density of $1$'s in any increasing sequence of balls converges to $α$. We show a slightly more general result which implies that these subshifts always exist in the case of groups of subexponential growth.
We give strongly aperiodic subshifts of finite type on every hyperbolic surface group; more generally, for each pair of expansive primitive symbolic substitution systems with incommensurate growth rates, we construct strongly aperiodic subshifts of finite type on their orbit graphs.
We consider the structure of aperiodic points in $\mathbb Z^2$-subshifts, and in particular the positions at which they fail to be periodic. We prove that if a $\mathbb Z^2$-subshift contains points whose smallest period is arbitrarily large, then it contains an aperiodic point. This lets us characterise the computational difficulty of deciding if an $\mathbb Z^2$-subshift of finite type contains an aperiodic point. Another consequence is that $\mathbb Z^2$-subshifts with no aperiodic point have a very strong dynamical structure and are almost topologically conjugate to some $\mathbb Z$-subshi…
It is well known that if $G$ admits a f.g. subgroup $H$ with a weaklyaperiodic SFT (resp. an undecidable domino problem), then $G$itself has a weakly aperiodic SFT (resp. an undecidable domino problem).We prove that we can replace the property "$H$ is a subgroup of $G$"by "$H$ acts translation-like on $G$", provided $H$ is finitely presented.In particular:* If $G\_1$ and $G\_2$ are f.g. infinite groups, then $G\_1 \times G\_2$ has a weakly aperiodic SFT (and actually a undecidable domino problem). In particular the Grigorchuk group has an undecidable domino problem. * Every infinite f.g. $p$-g…
We show that if $(X,T)$ is an extension of an aperiodic subshift (a subsystem of $({1,2,...,l}^{\mathbb{Z}},\mathrm{shift})$ for some $l\in\mathbb{N}$) and has mean dimension $mdim(X,T)<\frac{D}{2}$ $(D\in \mathbb{N}$), then it embeds equivariantly in (([0,1]^{D})^{\mathbb{Z}},\mathrm{shift})$. The result is sharp. If $(X,T)$ is an extension of an aperiodic zero-dimensional system then it embeds equivariantly in $(([0,1]^{D+1})^{\mathbb{Z}},\mathrm{shift})$.
In this note we prove the following results: $\bullet$ If a finitely presented group $G$ admits a strongly aperiodic SFT, then $G$ has decidable word problem. More generally, for f.g. groups that are not recursively presented, there exists a computable obstruction for them to admit strongly aperiodic SFTs. $\bullet$ On the positive side, we build strongly aperiodic SFTs on some new classes of groups. We show in particular that some particular monster groups admits strongly aperiodic SFTs for trivial reasons. Then, for a large class of group $G$, we show how to build strongly aperiodic SFTs ove…
This paper aims to better understand the link better understand the links between aperiodicity in subshifts and pattern complexity. Our main contribution deals with substitutive subshifts, an equivalent to substitutive tilings in the context of symbolic dynamics. For a class of substitutive subshifts, we prove a quadratic lower bound on their pattern complexity. Together with an already known upper bound, this shows that this class of substitutive subshifts has a pattern complexity in $Θ(n^2)$. We also prove that the recent bound of Kari and Moutot, showing that any aperiodic subshift has patt…
Let $A$ be a finite set and $G$ a group. A closed subset $X$ of $A^G$ is called a subshift if the action of $G$ on $A^G$ preserves $X$. If $K$ is a closed subset of $A^G$ such that membership in $K$ is determined by looking at a fixed finite set of coordinates, and $X$ is the intersection of all translates of $K$ under the action of $G$, then $X$ is called a subshift of finite type (SFT). If an SFT is nonempty and contains no finite $G$-orbits, it is said to be weakly aperiodic. A virtually cyclic group has no weakly aperiodic SFT, and Carroll and Penland have conjectured that a group with no …
The classical Domino problem asks whether there exists a tiling in which none of the forbidden patterns given as input appear. In this paper, we consider the aperiodic version of the Domino problem: given as input a family of forbidden patterns, does it allow an aperiodic tiling? The input may correspond to a subshift of finite type, a sofic subshift or an effective subshift. arXiv:1805.08829 proved that this problem is co-recursively enumerable ($Π_0^1$-complete) in dimension 2 for geometrical reasons. We show that it is much harder, namely analytic ($Σ_1^1$-complete), in higher dimension: $d…
At the turn of this century Durand, and Lagarias and Pleasants established that key features of minimal subshifts (and their higher-dimensional analogues) to be studied are linearly repetitive, repulsive and power free. Since then, generalisations and extensions of these features, namely $α$-repetitive, $α$-repulsive and $α$-finite ($α\geq 1$), have been introduced and studied. We establish the equivalence of $α$-repulsive and $α$-finite for general subshifts over finite alphabets. Further, we studied a family of aperiodic minimal subshifts stemming from Grigorchuk's infinite $2$-group $G$. In…
We present a technique to lift some tilings of the discrete hyperbolic plane -- tilings defined by a 1D substitution -- into a zero entropy subshift of finite type (SFT) on non-abelian amenable Baumslag-Solitar groups $BS(1,n)$ for $n\geq2$. For well chosen hyperbolic tilings, this SFT is also aperiodic and minimal. As an application we construct a strongly aperiodic SFT on $BS(1,n)$ with a hierarchical structure, which is an analogue of Robinson's construction on $\mathbb{Z}^2$ or Goodman-Strauss's on $\mathbb{H}_2$.
We explicitly construct a strongly aperiodic subshift of finite type for the discrete Heisenberg group. Our example builds on the classical aperiodic tilings of the plane due to Raphael Robinson. Extending those tilings to the Heisenberg group by exploiting the group's structure and posing additional local rules to prune out remaining periodic behavior we maintain a rich projective subdynamics on $\mathbb Z^2$ cosets. In addition the obtained subshift factors onto a strongly aperiodic, minimal sofic shift via a map that is invertible on a dense set of configurations.
We study Schrödinger operators on the real line whose potentials are generated by an underlying ergodic subshift over a finite alphabet and a rule that replaces symbols by compactly supported potential pieces. We first develop the standard theory that shows that the spectrum and the spectral type are almost surely constant, and that identifies the almost sure absolutely continuous spectrum with the essential closure of the set of energies with vanishing Lyapunov exponent. Using results of Damanik-Lenz and Klassert-Lenz-Stollmann, we also show that the spectrum is a Cantor set of zero Lebesgue …
Realization of $d$-dimensional effective subshifts as projective sub-actions of $d+d'$-dimensional sofic subshifts for $d'\geq 1$ is now well know~\cite{Hochman-2009,Durand-Romashchenko-Shen-2010,Aubrun-Sablik-2010}. In this paper we are interested in the speed of convergence of this realization. That is to say given an effective subshift $Σ$ realized as projective sub-action of a sofic $\T$, we study the function which on input an integer $k$ returns the smallest width of the strip which verify the local rules of $\T$ necessary to obtain exclusively the language of size $k$ of $Σ$ in the cent…
We study two relations on multi-dimensional subshifts: A pre-order based on the patterns configurations contain and the Cantor-Bendixson rank. We exhibit several structural properties of two-dimensional subshifts: We characterize the simplest aperiodic configurations in countable SFTs, we give a combinatorial characterization of uncountable subshifts, we prove that there always exists configurations without any periodicity but that have the simplest possible combinatorics in countable SFTs. Finally, we prove that some Cantor-Bendixson ranks are impossible for countable SFTs, leaving only a few…
Automorphism groups are intrincate conjugacy invariants for subshifts, which can reveal important features of the dynamical structure of a shift action. One important case is the study of automorphism groups when the underlying subshift has a very rigid structure, e.g. substitutive subshifts or aperiodic constructions with large-scale self-similarity, such as the Robinson shift. In this work we study the automorphism group of bijective substitutive subshifts, and a potential generalization in the form of the group of extended symmetries, studied previously by Michael Baake, John Roberts and Re…
In this paper we use fixed point tilings to answer a question posed by Michael Hochman and show that every one-dimensional effectively closed subshift can be implemented by a local rule in two dimensions. The proof uses the fixed-point construction of an aperiodic tile set and its extensions.
In this article we study the automorphism group ${\rm Aut}(X,σ)$ of subshifts $(X,σ)$ of low word complexity. In particular, we prove that Aut$(X,σ)$ is virtually $\mathbb{Z}$ for aperiodic minimal subshifts and certain transitive subshifts with non-superlinear complexity. More precisely, the quotient of this group relative to the one generated by the shift map is a finite group. In addition, we show that any finite group can be obtained in this way. The class considered includes minimal subshifts induced by substitutions, linearly recurrent subshifts and even some subshifts which simultaneous…
We show that the CPE class $α$ of Barbieri and García-Ramos contains a one-dimensional subshift for all countable ordinals $α$, i.e.\ the process of alternating topological and transitive closure on the entropy pairs relation of a subshift can end on an arbitrary ordinal. This is the composition of three constructions: We first realize every ordinal as the length of an abstract "close-up" process on a countable compact space. Next, we realize any abstract process on a compact zero-dimensional metrizable space as the process started from a shift-invariant relation on a subshift, the crucial con…
We study the (Hölder-)continuous behavior of the spectra belonging to a family of linear bounded operators $(A_t)_{t\in T}$ indexed by a topological space $T$. For the cases of self-adjoint, unitary and normal operators, a characterization of the continuity of $Σ:T\to \mathcal{K}(\mathbb{R}), t\mapsto σ(A_t),$ is proven while the distance of the spectra is measured by the Hausorff metric. If $T$ is a metric space, the Hölder-continuous behavior of $Σ$ is characterized for self-adjoint and unitary operators. Here we observe interesting effects, namely the rate of convergence is bisect whenever …
We consider continuous $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ valued cocycles over general dynamical systems and discuss a variety of uniformity notions. In particular, we provide a description of uniform one-parameter families of continuous $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ cocycles as $G_δ$-sets. These results are then applied to Schrödinger operators with dynamically defined potentials. In the case where the base dynamics is given by a subshift satisfying the Boshernitzan condition, we show that for a generic continuous sampling function, the associated Schrödinger cocycles are uniform for all energies and,…
This paper is concerned with uniform convergence in the multiplicative ergodic theorem on aperiodic subshifts. If such a subshift satisfies a certain condition, originally introduced by Boshernitzan, every locally constant SL(2,R)-valued cocycle is uniform. As a consequence, the corresponding Schrödinger operators exhibit Cantor spectrum of Lebesgue measure zero. An investigation of Boshernitzan's condition then shows that these results cover all earlier results of this type and, moreover, provide various new ones. In particular, Boshernitzan's condition is shown to hold for almost all circle …
We generalize a result of Hochman in two simultaneous directions: Instead of realizing an effectively closed $\mathbb{Z}^d$ action as a factor of a subaction of a $\mathbb{Z}^{d+2}$-SFT we realize an action of a finitely generated group analogously in any semidirect product of the group with $\mathbb{Z}^2$. Let $H$ be a finitely generated group and $G = \mathbb{Z}^2 \rtimes H$ a semidirect product. We show that for any effectively closed $H$-dynamical system $(Y,f)$ where $Y$ is a Cantor set, there exists a $G$-subshift of finite type $(X,σ)$ such that the $H$-subaction of $(X,σ)$ is an extens…
We show that every effectively closed action of a finitely generated group $G$ on a closed subset of $\{0,1\}^{\mathbb{N}}$ can be obtained as a topological factor of the $G$-subaction of a $(G \times H_1 \times H_2)$-subshift of finite type (SFT) for any choice of infinite and finitely generated groups $H_1,H_2$. As a consequence, we obtain that every group of the form $G_1 \times G_2 \times G_3$ admits a non-empty strongly aperiodic SFT subject to the condition that each $G_i$ is finitely generated and has decidable word problem. As a corollary of this last result we prove the existence of n…
The generic limit set of a dynamical system is the smallest set that attracts most of the space in a topological sense: it is the smallest closed set with a comeager basin of attraction. Introduced by Milnor, it has been studied in the context of one-dimensional cellular automata by Djenaoui and Guillon, Delacourt, and Törmä. In this article we present complexity bounds on realizations of generic limit sets of cellular automata with prescribed properties. We show that generic limit sets have a $Π^0_2$ language if they are inclusion-minimal, a $Σ^0_1$ language if the cellular automaton has equi…
