The construction of self-similar tilings (Q1919143)

A tile is a compact subset of \(R^2\) which is the closure of its interior. A tiling of the plane is a collection of tiles \({\mathcal T}= \{T_i\}\), \(i=1,2,\dots\) whose union is \(R^2\) and which have pairwise disjoint interiors. \textit{W. P. Thurston} [`Groups, tilings; and finite state automata (1990)] introduced the notion of a self-similar tiling of the plane, which has the property (among others) that there is a homothety \(\varphi(z)= \lambda z\) such that the image of a tile is equal to the union of tiles of \({\mathcal T}\). Thurston proved that the expansion coefficient \(\lambda\) of a self-similar tiling is a complex Perron number -- an algebraic integer which is strictly larger in modulus than its Galois conjugates. In this paper the author gives a construction of a self similar tiling for any complex Perron number and proves that for any integer \(m>1\) there exists a self-similar tiling with \(2\pi/m\)-rotational symmetry group and expansion \(\lambda\) if and only if either \(\lambda\) or \(\lambda e^{2\pi i/m}\) is a complex Perron number for which \(e^{2\pi i/m}\) is in \(\mathbb{Q} [\lambda]\), respectively \(Q [\lambda e^{2\pi i/m}]\).