Quasi-affine transformations and parings of the discret plane (Q5941279)

\textit{P. Nehlig} [Applications affines discrétes et antialiassage. Ph.D. Thesis, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg (1992); Theor. Comput. Sci. 156, No. 1, 1--38 (1995; Zbl 0877.68048)] introduced tilings generated by Quasi-Affine Transformations (QAT). Let us remember that a quasi-affine transformation, or QAT, is a transformation of the discrete plane obtained by composing a rational affine transformation with the usual integer function. So it is defined by \([g]:Z^{2}\rightarrow Z^{2}(x,y)\mapsto\) where \(a,b,c,d,e,f\) and \(\omega\) are integers, \(\omega >0\), and [\ ]\ denotes the usual integer function. The reciprocal image of a point \((i,j)\) by a QAT can contain no, one or several points; this reciprocal image is called paving or tile of index \((i,j)\) and noted \(P_{i,j}.\) The pavings form a periodic tiling of the discrete plane. Nehlig defined the supertile which is a set of tiles containing all generic tiles: so the supertile tiles the discrete plane. He defined also the generic strip which is a part of the supertile sufficient to tile the discrete plane and proved that if \(\omega=ad-bc\) then the paving of index \((0,0)\) tiles the plane. This study has been done assuming that \(\text{gcd} (a,b)=\text{gcd} (b,d)=\text{gcd} (c,d)=\text{gcd} (c,a)=1\) (where \text{gcd} denotes the greatest common divisor). The aim of this paper is to go on with this study in the general case. We will determine a set of indices \(I\) and two vectors \(u\) and \(v\) such that each paving of index \((i,j)\) can be obtained by translating a paving of index belonging to \(I,\) the translation vector depending on \((i,j),\) \(u\) and \(v.\) We then call paving-cluster the set of pavings of index belonging to \(I.\) When \(\text{gcd} (a,b)=\text{gcd} (b,d)=\text{gcd} (d,c)=\text{gcd} (c,a)=1,\) the paving-cluster contains the same pavings as the generic strip defined by Nehlig. We also prove that the number of neighbours of a paving varies from four to eight; when \(\omega=ad-bc\) a paving has 4 or 6 neighbours. This last result is a particular case of \textit{D. Beauquier} and \textit{M. Nivat}'s theorem [Discrete Comput. Geom. 6, No. 6, 575--592 (1991; Zbl 0754.05030)].