Symmetric intersections of Rauzy fractals

In this article we study symmetric subsets of Rauzy fractals of unimodular irreducible Pisot substitutions. The symmetry considered is reflection through the origin. Given an unimodular irreducible Pisot substitution, we consider the intersection of its Rauzy fractal with the Rauzy fractal of the reverse substitution. This set is symmetric and it is obtained by the balanced pair algorithm associated with both substitutions

Approximating Holant problems by winding

We give an FPRAS for Holant problems with parity constraints and not-all-equal constraints, a generalisation of the problem of counting sink-free-orientations. The approach combines a sampler for near-assignments of "windable" functions -- using the cycle-unwinding canonical paths technique of Jerrum and Sinclair -- with a bound on the weight of near-assignments. The proof generalises to a larger class of Holant problems; we characterise this class and show that it cannot be extended by expressibility reductions. We then ask whether windability is equivalent to expressibility by matchings circuits (an analogue of matchgates), and give a positive answer for functions of arity three