On Keller's conjecture in dimension seven (Q490321)

Summary: A cube tiling of \(\mathbb{R}^d\) is a family of pairwise disjoint cubes \([0,1)^d+T=\{[0,1)^d+t:t\in T\}\) such that \(\bigcup_{t\in T}([0,1)^d+t=\mathbb{R}^d\). Two cubes \([0,1)^d+t\), \([0,1)^d+s\) are called a twin pair if \(|t_j-s_j|=1\) for some \(j\in [d]=\{1,\dots, d\}\) and \(t_i=s_i\) for every \(i\in [d]\setminus \{j\}\). \textit{K.-O. Keller} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 163, 231--248 (1930; JFM 56.1120.01)] conjectured that in every cube tiling of \(\mathbb{R}^d\) there is a twin pair. Keller's conjecture is true for dimensions \(d\leq 6\) and false for all dimensions \(d\geq 8\). For \(d=7\) the conjecture is still open. Let \(x\in \mathbb{R}^d\), \(i\in [d]\), and let \(L(T,x,i)\) be the set of all \(i\)th coordinates \(t_i\) of vectors \(t\in T\) such that \(([0,1)^d+t)\cap ([0,1]^d+x)\neq \emptyset\) and \(t_i\leq x_i\). Let \(r^-(T)=\min_{x\in \mathbb{R}^d}\; \max_{1\leq i\leq d}|L(T,x,i)|\) and \(r^+(T)=\max_{x\in \mathbb{R}^d}\; \max_{1\leq i\leq d}|L(T,x,i)|\). It is known that if \(r^-(T)\leq 2\) or \(r^+(T)\geq 6\), then Keller's conjecture is true for \(d=7\). In the present paper we show that it is also true for \(d=7\) if \(r^+(T)=5\). Thus, if \([0,1)^d+T\) is a counterexample to Keller's conjecture in dimension seven, then \(r^-(T),r^+(T)\in \{3,4\}\).