Tilings (Q5920259)

This is an expository article about tiling problems. Several interesting results in the literature are stated. Most of these results are not proved in the article, instead, key examples and the references are given. Below is a list of the topics covered in the article: 1. Whether or not a given rectangle can be tiled with a predetermined set of polyominoes, and the number of such tilings. 2. Coloring arguments that demonstrate the impossibility of a tiling. 3. The tiling problem of Conway and Lagarias whose impossibility cannot be detected by a coloring argument. 4. The Fisher, Temperley-Kasteleyn formula for the number of domino tilings of a rectangle. 5. The number of domino tilings of an Aztec diamond. 6. The asymptotics of the numbers of tilings described above. 7. P. Hall's marriage theorem in relation to domino tilings. 8. Tiling a rectangle with a set of similar rectangles. 9. Tiling a rectangle with squares. 10. Random tilings and the Arctic Circle Theorem for random tilings of an Aztec diamond. 11. Moving between domino tilings by a sequence of flips. 12. Tiling with infinitely many tiles or tiling unbounded regions. {Remark:} In the section titled ``Counting tilings, approximately'', \(\sqrt[N]{2}\) seems to have been written as \(\sqrt{[N]2}\) in several places. In particular, \(\sqrt{42}\) should be replaced by \(\sqrt[4]{2}\).