To understand an aperiodic tiling (or a quasicrystal modeled on an aperiodic tiling), we construct a space of similar tilings, on which the group of translations acts naturally. This space is then an (abstract) dynamical system. Dynamical properties of the space (such as mixing, or the spectrum of the translation operator) are closely related to bulk properties of the individual tilings (such as the diffraction pattern). The topology of the space of tilings, particularly the Cech cohomology, gives information on how the original tiling can be deformed. Tiling spaces can be constructed as inverse limits of branched manifolds.
A basic assumption of tiling theory is that adjacent tiles can meet in only a finite number of ways, up to rigid motions. However, there are many interesting tiling spaces that do not have this property. They have "fault lines", along which tiles can slide past one another. We investigate the topology of a certain class of tiling spaces of this type. We show that they can be written as inverse limits of CW complexes, and their Cech cohomology is related to properties of the fault lines.
We study the space of all tilings which can be obtained using the Robinson tiles (this is a two-dimensional subshift of finite type). We prove that it has a unique minimal subshift, and describe it by means of a substitution. This description allows to compute its cohomology groups, and prove that it is a model set.
Let M be an arbitrary Riemannian homogeneous space, and let Omega be a space of tilings of M, with finite local complexity (relative to some symmetry group Gamma) and closed in the natural topology. Then Omega is the inverse limit of a sequence of compact finite-dimensional branched manifolds. The branched manifolds are (finite) unions of cells, constructed from the tiles themselves and the group Gamma. This result extends previous results of Anderson and Putnam, of Ormes, Radin and Sadun, of Bellissard, Benedetti and Gambaudo, and of Gähler. In particular, the construction in this paper is a …
This is a chapter in an incoming book on aperiodic order. We review results about the topology, the dynamics, and the combinatorics of aperiodically ordered tilings obtained with the tools of noncommutative geometry.
We investigate the dynamics of substitution subshifts and their associated tiling spaces. For a given subshift, the associated tiling spaces are all homeomorphic, but their dynamical properties may differ. We give criteria for such a tiling space to be weakly mixing, and for the dynamics of two such spaces to be topologically conjugate.
We define a relative version of tiling cohomology for the purpose of comparing the topology of tiling spaces when one is a factor of the other. We illustrate this with examples, and outline a method for computing the cohomology of tiling spaces of finite type.
We investigate the dynamics of tiling dynamical systems and their deformations. If two tiling systems have identical combinatorics, then the tiling spaces are homeomorphic, but their dynamical properties may differ. There is a natural map ${\mathcal I}$ from the parameter space of possible shapes of tiles to $H^1$ of a model tiling space, with values in ${\mathbb R}^d$. Two tiling spaces that have the same image under ${\mathcal I}$ are mutually locally derivable (MLD). When the difference of the images is `asymptotically negligible', then the tiling dynamics are topologically conjugate, but g…
Aperiodic tilings with a small number of prototiles are of particular interest, both theoretically and for applications in crystallography. In this direction, many people have tried to construct aperiodic tilings that are built from a single prototile with nearest neighbour matching rules, which is then called a monotile. One strand of the search for a planar monotile has focussed on hexagonal analogues of Wang tiles. This led to two inflation tilings with interesting structural details. Both possess aperiodic local rules that define hulls with a model set structure. We review them in comparis…
After investigating by examples the unusual and striking elementary properties of the Penrose tilings and the Arnold cat map, we associate a finite symbolic dynamics with finite grammar rules to each of them. Instead of studying these Markovian systems with the help of set-topology, which would give only pathological results, a noncommutative approximately finite C*-algebra is associated to both systems. By calculating the K-groups of these algebras it is demonstrated that this noncommutative point of view gives a much more appropriate description of the phase space structure of these systems …
We introduce a fractal version of the pinwheel substitution tiling. There are thirteen basic prototiles, all of which have fractal boundaries. These tiles, along with their reflections and rotations, create a tiling space which is mutually locally derivable from the pinwheel tiling space. Interesting rotational properties, symmetries, and relative tile frequency are discussed for the tiling space associated with the fractal pinwheel tiling.
We prove that fairly general spaces of tilings of R^d are fiber bundles over the torus T^d, with totally disconnected fiber. This was conjectured (in a weaker form) in [W3], and proved in certain cases. In fact, we show that each such space is homeomorphic to the d-fold suspension of a Z^d subshift (or equivalently, a tiling space whose tiles are marked unit d-cubes). The only restrictions on our tiling spaces are that 1) the tiles are assumed to be polygons (polyhedra if d>2) that meet full-edge to full-edge (or full-face to full-face), 2) only a finite number of tile types are allowed, and 3…
The Exact Regularity Property was introduced recently as a property of homological Pisot substitutions in one dimension. In this paper, we consider exact regularity for arbitrary tiling spaces. Let ${T}$ be a $d$ dimensional repetitive tiling, and let $Ω_{T}$ be its hull. If $\check H^d(Ω_{T}, Q) = Q^k$, then there exist $k$ patches whose appearance govern the number of appearances of every other patch. This gives uniform estimates on the convergence of all patch frequencies to the ergodic limit. If the tiling ${T}$ comes from a substitution, then we can quantify that convergence rate. If ${T}…
This is a chapter in an upcoming book on aperiodic order. We go over different versions of tiling cohomology (\v Cech, pattern-equivariant, PV, quotient) with emphasis on the inverse limit constructions used to compute these cohomologies. We then consider the uses of tiling cohomology to distinguish spaces, to understand deformations, and to help understand maps between tiling spaces. The emphasis of this chapter is on substitution tilings and their generalizations, but the underlying ideas apply equally well to cut-and-project tilings and to tilings defined by local matching rules.
We consider tilings of the plane with 12-fold symmetry obtained by the cut and projection method. We compute their cohomology groups using the techniques introduced by the second author, Hunton and Kellendonk. To do this we completely describe the window, the orbits of lines under the group action and the orbits of 0-singularities. The complete family of generalized 12-fold tilings can be described using 2-parameters and it presents a surprisingly rich cohomological structure. To put this finding into perspective, one should compare our results with the cohomology of the generalized 5-fold til…
We give an application of a topological dynamics version of multidimensional Brown's lemma to tiling theory: given a tiling of an Euclidean space and a finite geometric pattern of points $F$, one can find a patch such that, for each scale factor $λ$, there is a vector $\vec{t}_λ$ so that copies of this patch appear in the tilling "nearly" centered on $λF+\vec{t}_λ$ once we allow "bounded perturbations" in the structure of the homothetic copies of $F$. Furthermore, we introduce a new unifying setting for the study of tiling spaces which allows rather general group "actions" on patches and we di…
We show that every continuous map from one translationally finite tiling space to another can be approximated by a local map. If two local maps are homotopic, then the homotopy can be chosen so that every interpolating map is also local.
Every sufficiently regular space of tilings of $\R^d$ has at least one pair of distinct tilings that are asymptotic under translation in all the directions of some open $(d-1)$-dimensional hemisphere. If the tiling space comes from a substitution, there is a way of defining a location on such tilings at which asymptoticity `starts'. This leads to the definition of the {\em branch locus} of the tiling space: this is a subspace of the tiling space, of dimension at most $d-1$, that summarizes the `asymptotic in at least a half-space' behavior in the tiling space. We prove that if a $d$-dimensiona…
We consider substitution tilings in R^d that give rise to point sets that are not bounded displacement (BD) equivalent to a lattice and study the cardinality of BD(X), the set of distinct BD class representatives in the corresponding tiling space X. We prove a sufficient condition under which the tiling space contains continuously many distinct BD classes and present such an example in the plane. In particular, we show here for the first time that this cardinality can be greater than one.
We study homeomorphisms of tiling spaces with finite local complexity (FLC), of which suspensions of $d$-dimensional subshifts are an example, and orbit equivalence of tiling spaces with (possibly) infinite local complexity (ILC). In the FLC case, we construct a cohomological invariant of homeomorphisms, and show that all homeomorphisms are a combination of tiling deformations, translations, and local equivalences (MLD). In the ILC case, we construct a cohomological invariant in the so-called weak cohomology, and show that all orbit equivalences are combinations of tiling deformations, transla…
We study the topology and dynamics of subshifts and tiling spaces associated to non-primitive substitutions in one dimension. We identify a property of a substitution, which we call tameness, in the presence of which most of the possible pathological behaviours of non-minimal substitutions cannot occur. We find a characterization of tameness, and use this to prove a slightly stronger version of a result of Durand, which says that the subshift of a minimal substitution is topologically conjugate to the subshift of a primitive substitution. We then extend to the non-minimal setting a result obta…
We introduce a procedure for establishing pure discrete spectrum for substitution tiling systems of Pisot family type and illustrate with several examples.
We introduce a new general framework for constructing tilings of Euclidean space, which we call multiscale substitution tilings. These tilings are generated by substitution schemes on a finite set of prototiles, in which multiple distinct scaling constants are allowed. This is in contrast to the standard case of the well-studied substitution tilings which includes examples such as the Penrose and the pinwheel tilings. Under an additional irrationality assumption on the scaling constants, our construction defines a new class of tilings and tiling spaces, which are intrinsically different from t…
We show that Kellendonk's tiling semigroup of an FLC substitution tiling is self-similar, in the sense of Bartholdi, Grigorchuk and Nekrashevych. We extend the notion of the limit space of a self-similar group to the setting of self-similar semigroups, and show that it is homeomorphic to the Anderson--Putnam complex for such substitution tilings, with natural self-map induced by the substitution. Thus, the inverse limit of the limit space, given by the limit solenoid of the self-similar semigroup, is homeomorphic to the translational hull of the tiling.
Anderson and Putnam showed that the cohomology of a substitution tiling space may be computed by collaring tiles to obtain a substitution which ``forces its border.'' One can then represent the tiling space as an inverse limit of an inflation and substitution map on a cellular complex formed from the collared tiles; the cohomology of the tiling space is computed as the direct limit of the homomorphism induced by inflation and substitution on the cohomology of the complex. For one-dimensional substitution tiling spaces, we describe a modification of the Anderson-Putnam complex on collared tiles…
We introduce a GUI fronted program that can compute combinatorial properties and topological invariants of recognisable and primitive symbolic substitutions on finite alphabets and their associated tiling spaces. We introduce theory from the study of aperiodic 1-dimensional tilings along with pseudocode highlighting the algorithms that we have implemented into the GUI. Grout is written using C++ and its standard library.
We study the homomorphism induced on cohomology by the maximal equicontinuous factor map of a tiling space. We will see that this map is injective in degree one and has torsion free cokernel. We show by example, however, that the cohomology of the maximal equicontinuous factor may not be a direct summand of the tiling cohomology.
We generalise the notion of a Barge-Diamond complex, in the one-dimensional case, to a mixed system of tiling substitutions. This gives a way of describing the associated tiling space as an inverse limit of Barge-Diamond complexes. We give an effective method for calculating the Čech cohomology of the tiling space via an exact sequence relating the associated sequence of substitution matrices and certain subcomplexes appearing in the approximants. As an application, we show that there exists a system of three substitutions on two letters which exhibit an uncountable collection of minimal tilin…
Aperiodic tilings are non-periodic tilings defined by local rules. They are widely used to model quasicrystals, and a central question is to understand which of the non-periodic tilings are actually aperiodic. Among tilings, those by rhombi can be easily seen as approximations of surfaces in higher dimensional spaces. In particular, those which approximate irrational planes are non-periodic. But which ones are also aperiodic? This paper introduces the notion of subperiod, which links algebraic properties of a plane with geometric properties of the tilings that approximate it. A necessary and s…
We reinvestigate the theory of deformations of tilings using P-equivariant cohomology. In particular we relate the notion of asymptotically negligible shape functions introduced by Clark and Sadun to weakly P-equivariant forms. We then investigate more closely the relation between deformations of patterns and homeomorphism or topological conjugacy of pattern spaces.
A substitution $\vp$ is strong Pisot if its abelianization matrix is non-singular and all eigenvalues except the Perron-Frobenius eigenvalue have modulus less than one. For strong Pisot $\vp$ that satisfies a no cycle condition and for which the translation flow on the tiling space $\T_\vp$ has pure discrete spectrum, we describe the collection $\T^P_\vp$ of pairs of proximal tilings in $\T_\vp$ in a natural way as a substitution tiling space. We show that if $ψ$ is another such substitution, then $\T_\vp $ and $\T_ψ$ are homeomorphic if and only if $\T^P_\vp$ and $\T^P_ψ$ are homeomorphic. We…
Anderson and Putnam showed that the cohomology of a substitution tiling space may be computed by collaring tiles to obtain a substitution which "forces its border." One can then represent the tiling space as an inverse limit of an inflation and substitution map on a cellular complex formed from the collared tiles; the cohomology of the tiling space is computed as the direct limit of the homomorphism induced by inflation and substitution on the cohomology of the complex. In earlier work, Barge and Diamond described a modification of the Anderson-Putnam complex on collared tiles for one-dimensio…
Crystallographic tilings of the Euclidean space $\mathbb{E}^n$ are defined as simple tilings whose group of isometric automorphisms is crystallographic. To classify crystallographic tilings by their automorphism groups it is necessary to extend the standard equivalence relation of mutual local derivability to a version taking more general isometries than translations into account. This also requires the extension of the standard metrics on tiling spaces. Finally, a tiling with a given crystallographic group as automorphism group is constructed.
If phi is a Pisot substitution of degree d, then the inflation and substitution homeomorphism Phi on the tiling space T_Phi factors via geometric realization onto a d-dimensional solenoid. Under this realization, the collection of Phi-periodic asymptotic tilings corresponds to a finite set that projects onto the branch locus in a d-torus. We prove that if two such tiling spaces are homeomorphic, then the resulting branch loci are the same up to the action of certain affine maps on the torus.
We show that any codimension one hyperbolic attractor of a diffeomorphism of a (d+1)-dimensional closed manifold is shape equivalent to a (d+1)-dimensional torus with a finite number of points removed, or, in the non-orientable case, to a space with a 2 to 1 covering by such a torus-less-points. Furthermore, we show that each orientable attractor is homeomorphic to a tiling space associated to an aperiodic tiling of Rd, but that the converse is generally not true. This work allows the definition of a new invariant for aperiodic tilings, in many cases finer than the cohomological or K-theoretic…
We consider the structure of Pisot substitution tiling spaces, in particular, the structure of those spaces for which the translation action does not have pure discrete spectrum. Such a space is always a measurable m-to-one cover of an action by translation on a group called the maximal equicontinuous factor. The integer m is the coincidence rank of the substitution and equals one if and only if translation on the tiling space has pure discrete spectrum. By considering factors intermediate between a tiling space and its maximal equicontinuous factor, we establish a lower bound on the cohomolog…
We introduce a formalism for handling general spaces of hierarchical tilings, a category that includes substitution tilings, Bratteli-Vershik systems, S-adic transformations, and multi-dimensional cut-and-stack transformations. We explore ergodic, spectral and topological properties of these spaces. We show that familiar properties of substitution tilings carry over under appropriate assumptions, and give counter-examples where these assumptions are not met. For instance, we exhibit a minimal tiling space that is not uniquely ergodic, with one ergodic measure having pure point spectrum and ano…
We derive a homeomorphism invariant for those tiling spaces which are made by rather general substitution rules on polygonal tiles, including those tilings, like the pinwheel, which contain tiles in infinitely many orientations. The invariant is a quotient of Cech cohomology, is easily computed directly from the substitution rule, and distinguishes many examples, including most pinwheel-like tiling spaces. We also introduce a module structure on cohomology which is very convenient as well as of intuitive value.
A spectral sequence is defined which converges to the Čech cohomology of the Euclidean hull of a tiling of the plane with Euclidean finite local complexity. The terms of the second page are determined by the so-called ePE homology and ePE cohomology groups of the tiling, and the only potentially non-trivial boundary map has a simple combinatorial description in terms of its local patches. Using this spectral sequence, we compute the Čech cohomology of the Euclidean hull of the Penrose tilings.
We extend rotation theory of circle maps to tiling spaces. Specifically, we consider a 1-dimensional tiling space $Ω$ with finite local complexity and study self-maps $F$ that are homotopic to the identity and whose displacements are strongly pattern equivariant (sPE). In place of the familiar rotation number we define a cohomology class $[μ]$. We prove existence and uniqueness results for this class, develop a notion of irrationality, and prove an analogue of Poncaré's Theorem: If $[μ]$ is irrational, then $F$ is semi-conjugate to uniform translation on a space $Ω_μ$ of tilings that is homeom…
In this paper, we consider tilings of the hyperbolic 2-space, built with a finite number of polygonal tiles, up to affine transformation. To such a tiling T, we associate a space of tilings: the continuous hull Omega(T) on which the affine group acts. This space Omega(T) inherits a solenoid structure whose leaves correspond to the orbits of the affine group. First we prove the finite harmonic measures of this laminated space correspond to finite invariant measures for the affine group action. Then we give a complete combinatorial description of these finite invariant measures. Finally we give …
We relate a balancing property of letters for bi-infinite sequences to the invariance of the resulting 1-dimensional tiling dynamics under changes in the lengths of the tiles. If the language of the sequence space is finitely balanced, then all length changes in the corresponding tiling space result in topological conjugacies, up to an overall rescaling.
Given a finite set ${S_1...,S_k}$ of substitution maps acting on a certain finite number (up to translations) of tiles in $\rd$, we consider the multi-substitution tiling space associated to each sequence $\bar a\in {1,...,k}^{\mathbb{N}}$. The action by translations on such spaces gives rise to uniquely ergodic dynamical systems. In this paper we investigate the rate of convergence for ergodic limits of patches frequencies and prove that these limits vary continuously with $\bar a$.
We consider tilings of Euclidean spaces by polygons or polyhedra, in particular, tilings made by a substitution process, such as the Penrose tilings of the plane. We define an isomorphism invariant related to a subgroup of rotations and compute it for various examples. We also extend our analysis to more general dynamical systems.
It is proved that whenever two aperiodic repetitive tilings with finite local complexity have homeomorphic tiling spaces, their associated complexity functions are asymptotically equivalent in a certain sense (which implies, if the complexity is polynomial, that the exponent of the leading term is preserved by homeomorphism). This theorem can be reworded in terms of $d$-dimensional infinite words: if two $\mathbb{Z}^d$-subshifts (with the same conditions as above) are flow equivalent, their complexity functions are equivalent. An analogue theorem is proved for the repetitivity function, which …
Going beyond the cohomological invariants attached to tiling spaces via inverse limit constructions, Clark and Hunton introduced shape group invariants, and showed these invariants in dimension one give new information. We show for dimensions greater than one that these groups are trivial. To do this, we show that the topological hull associated to a tiling in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$ is the inverse limit of aspherical branched manifolds. The result follows from work of Gromov and others on complete geodesic spaces of nonpositive Alexandrov curvature, along with some simple observations.
We compute the Cech cohomology with integer coefficients of one-dimensional tiling spaces arising from not just one, but several different substitutions, all acting on the same set of tiles. These calculations involve the introduction of a universal version of the Anderson-Putnam complex. We show that, under a certain condition on the substitutions, the projective limit of this universal Anderson-Putnam complex is isomorphic to the tiling space, and we introduce a simplified universal Anderson-Putnam complex that can be used to compute Cech cohomology. We then use this simplified complex to pl…
A new method for constructing self-referential tilings of Euclidean space from a graph directed iterated function system, based on a combinatorial structure we call a pre-tree, is introduced. In the special case that we refer to as balanced, the resulting tilings have a finite set of prototiles, are quasiperiodic but not periodic, and are self-similar. A necessary and sufficient condition for two balanced tilings to be congruent is provided.
Identity-homotopic self-homeomorphisms of a space of non-periodic 1-dimensional tiling are generalizations of orientation-preserving self-homeomorphisms of circles. We define the analogue of rotation numbers for such maps. In constrast to the classical situation, additional assumptions are required to make rotation numbers globally well-defined and independent of initial conditions. We prove that these conditions are sufficient, and provide counterexamples when these conditions are not met.
Given an n-dimensional substitution whose associated linear expansion is unimodular and hyperbolic, we use elements of the one-dimensional integer Čech cohomology of the associated tiling space to construct a finite-to-one semi-conjugacy, called geometric realization, between the substitution induced dynamics and an invariant set of a hyperbolic toral automorphism. If the linear expansion satisfies a Pisot family condition and the rank of the module of generalized return vectors equals the generalized degree of the linear expansion, the image of geometric realization is the entire torus and co…
This paper presents a detailed symbolic approach to the study of self-similar tilings. It uses properties of addresses associated with graph-directed iterated function systems to establish conjugacy properties of tiling spaces. Tiles may be fractals and the tiled set may be a complicated unbounded subset of $\mathbb{R}^{M}$.
For a large class of tilings, including the Penrose tiling in two dimension as well as the icosahedral ones in 3 dimension, the continuous hull of such a tiling inherits a minimal lamination structure with flat leaves and a transversal which is a Cantor set. In this case, we show that the continuous hull can be seen as the projective limit of a suitable sequence of branched, oriented and flat compact manifolds.The algebraic topological features related to this sequence reflect the dynamical properties of the action on the continuous hull. In particular the set of positive invariant measures of…
We show that given any tiling of Euclidean space, any geometric patterns of points, we can find a patch of tiles (of arbitrarily large size) so that copies of this patch appear in the tiling nearly centered on a scaled and translated version of the pattern. The rather simple proof uses Furstenberg's topological multiple recurrence theorem.
