Topology of planar self-affine tiles with collinear digit set (Q2031473)

Let \(M \in \mathbb{Z}^{2 \times 2}\) be an integral matrix with characteristic polynomial \(x^{2}+A x+B\), where integers \(A, B \) satisfy \(|A| \leq B \geq 2\). Let \(\mathcal{D}=\{0, v, 2 v, \ldots,(B-1) v\}\) for some \(v \in \mathbb{Z}^{2}\) such that \(v, M v\) are linearly independent. The paper under review is interested in the topological properties of the self-affine tile \(\mathcal{T}\) defined by \[M \mathcal{T}=\bigcup_{d \in \mathcal{D}}(\mathcal{T}+d).\] \textit{K.-S. Leung} and \textit{K.-S. Lau} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 359, No. 7, 3337--3355 (2007; Zbl 1118.52023)] proved that \(\mathcal{T}\) is homeomorphic to a closed disk if and only if \(2|A| \leq B+2 .\) In particular, \(\mathcal{T}\) has no cut point. The authors prove here that \(\mathcal{T}\) has a cut point if and only if \(2|A| \geq B+5\). For \(2|A|-B \in\{3,4\}\), the interior of \(\mathcal{T}\) is disconnected and the closure of each connected component of the interior of \(\mathcal{T}\) is homeomorphic to a closed disk.