Rotation numbers and rotation classes on one-dimensional tiling spaces (Q2043029)

A tiling \(T\) is a collection of tiles, intersecting only at their boundaries, whose union is all of \(\mathbb{R}\). The closure of the orbit of \(T\) is called the tiling space of \(T\). The authors extend rotation numbers of circle maps to tiling spaces. Specifically, they consider a one-dimensional tiling space \(\Omega\) with finite local complexity and study self-maps \(F\) that are homotopic to the identity with the displacements being strongly pattern equivariant. The main results of the paper are as follows. First, a cohomology class \([\mu] \in H^1 (\Omega, \mathbb{R})\) is defined in place of the familiar rotation number. Then the authors prove both existence and uniqueness results for such a class. After developing a notion of irrationality, they obtain an analogue of the Poincaré's theorem: if \([\mu]\) is irrational, then \(F\) is semi-conjugate to a uniform translation on a space \(\Omega_{\mu}\) of tilings that is homeomorphic to \(\Omega\). Moreover, \(F\) is semi-conjugate to a uniform translation on \(\Omega\) itself if and only if \([\mu]\) lies in a certain subspace of \(H^1 (\Omega, \mathbb{R})\).