Rhombus tilings of an even-sided polygon and quadrangulations on the projective plane (Q2175790)

A quadrangulation \(Q\) on some surface is a fixed embedding of a simple graph on this surface such that each face is bounded by a 4-cycle. A cycle \(C\) of \(Q\) is contractible if \(C\) bounds a 2-cell. A quadrangulation on a closed surface is \(k\)-minimal if its shortest noncontractible cycle is of length \(k\) and if any face contraction yields a noncontractible cycle of length less than \(k\). Let \(G\) be a quadrangulation on a disk with boundary \(2k\)-cycle for \(k>3\). Then \(G\) is combinatorially equivalent to some rhombus tiling of regular \(2k\)-gon if \(G\) is obtained from a \(k\)-minimal quadrangulation \(Q\) on the projective plane by cutting along a noncontractible \(k\)-cycle \(C\) of \(Q\).