The local structure of tilings and their integer group of coinvariants (Q1366988)

The paper under review takes its stimulation from two areas of application in Mathematical Physics. One is the \(K\)-theoretical gap labelling of Schrödinger operators describing the motion of a particle in a (non-)periodic tiling, and the other one concerns topological dynamical systems on the Cantor set, which are related to a certain class of tilings, the decorations of \(\mathbb{Z}^d\). Nevertheless, this paper is also valuable for people interested in aperiodic tilings which have not understood the previous sentence. In order to make this point clear, the notions and constructions which make the core of the article must be explained more explicitly. A pattern of a tiling \(T\) is a finite subset of its tiles. A pattern \(M\) together with an ordered pair \((x,y)\) of its tiles is a doubly pointed pattern and will be denoted by \(M_{xy}\). A class of a tile, a tiling or a pattern is its respective congruence class under translation. There are two interesting structures associated with doubly pointed pattern classes. Firstly, there is a natural ordering: one defines \(M_{uv} \leq N_{wx}\) whenever there are representatives \(X_{ab}\) and \(Y_{cd}\) of \(M_{uv}\) and \(N_{wx}\), respectively, such that \(X\) is a subset of \(Y\) and \((a,b) = (c,d)\). Secondly, one has a \textit{partial} multiplication of doubly pointed pattern classes: Two classes \(M_{tu}\) and \(N_{vw}\) are composable if there exists a third class \(L_{xy}\) and a tile \(z\) of \(L\) such that \(M_{tu} \leq L_{xz}\) and \(N_{vw} \leq L_{zy}\). If \(L_{xy}\) exists, then there exists only one minimal element in the set of all such pattern classes \(L _{xy}\), and this will be called the product \(M_{tu} N_{vw}\). Or more down to earth: We can find representatives of \(M\) and \(N\), respectively, which overlap in tiles, such that the second marked tile of \(M\) is the first marked tile of \(N\). The union of these two patterns is the pattern of the product of \(M\) and \(N\), and the first marking of \(M\) and the second marking of \(N\) gives the marked tiles of the product. Hence we have associated with a tiling the almost-groupoid of its doubly pointed pattern classes. The set of all tilings having only tiles which are in the same class as the tiles of the given tiling can be equipped with a metric by comparing finite patches. From the completion of this space and the almost-groupoid of doubly pointed pattern classes, one obtains the groupoid associated with \(T\). To this groupoid, several algebraic and topological constructions can be applied. In particular, one obtains a \(C^*\)-algebra and its \(K\)-groups. A part of the \(K_0\)-group can be reconstructed from the integer group of coinvariants, which can be defined more elementary in terms of the groupoids itself. The group of coinvariants is computed for a certain class of substitution tilings. It is worthwile to note that local geometric constructions for tilings give rise to homomorphisms between the respective groupoids, e.g. adding, deleting or deforming boundaries of tiles, or substitution rules.