Weak local rules for planar octagonal tilings (Q1686304)

In the present paper, the authors study planar octagonal tilings which admit weak local rules. Before we present the main result, let us recall some technical definitions. Let \(v_{1}, ..., v_{4}\) be pairwise non-collinear vectors in \(\mathbb{R}^{2}\) and we define the \textit{proto-tiles} as \[ T_{ij} = \{\lambda v_{i} + \mu v_{j} : 0 \leq \lambda, \mu \leq 1 \}, \] for \(1 \leq i < j \leq 4\). A \textit{tile} is a translated proto-tile. An \textit{octagonal tiling} is an edge-to-edge tiling by these tiles, that is, a covering of Euclidean plane such that two tiles can intersect only in a vertex or along a whole edge. The \textit{lift} of an octagonal tiling is a \(2\)-dimensional surface in \(\mathbb{R}^{4}\) defined as follows: an arbitrary vertex of the tiling is first mapped onto an arbitrary point in \(\mathbb{Z}^{4}\), then each tile \(T_{ij}\) is mapped onto the unit face generated by \(e_{i}, e_{j}\) where \(e_{1}, ..., e_{4}\) is the standard basis of \(\mathbb{R}^{4}\), so that two tiles adjacent along \(v_{i}\) are mapped onto faces adjacent along \(e_{i}\). We define planar octagonal tilings as those with a lift which lies inside a tube \(E + [0,t]^{4}\), where \(E\) is a (two dimensional) affine plane in \(\mathbb{R}^{4}\) called the slope of the tiling, and \(t\geq 1\) is a real number called the thickness of the tiling. The Grassmann coordinates of a plane \(E\) generated by two vectors \((u_{1},u_{2},u_{3},u_{4})\) and \((v_{1},v_{2},v_{3},v_{4})\) are the six real numbers defined up to a common multiplicative factor by \(G_{i,j} = u_{i}v_{j} - u_{j}v_{i}.\) A plane is said to be non-degenerate if its Grassmann coordinates are all non-zero. A \textit{type \(k\) subperiod} of a plane \(E\) is a linear rational equation on its Grassmann coordinates which have no index \(k\). A \textit{pattern} of an octagonal tiling is a finite subset of its tiles. An \textit{\(r\)-map} is a pattern whose tiles are exactly those intersecting a closed ball of diameter \(r\) drawn on the tilings. The set of \(r\)-maps of a tiling form its \(r\)-atlas. A plane \(E\) has weak local rules of diameter \(r\) and thickness \(t\) if any octagonal tiling whose \(r\)-maps are also \(r\)-maps of a planar tiling with slope \(E\) and thickness \(1\) is itself planar with slope \(E\) and thickness \(t\). After this preparation, we are ready to formulate the following main result of the paper. Main Result. A plane admitting weak local rules is determined by its subperiods. This result allows to conclude the following. Corollary 1. A plane admitts weak local rules iff it is determined by its subperiods. Corollary 2. If a plane has weak local rules, then it is generated by vectors with entries in some quadratic number field \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d})\). The above corollary answers a conjecture of Thang Le from 1990s.