Ribbon Tilings and Multidimensional Height Functions

We fix $n$ and say a square in the two-dimensional grid indexed by $(x,y)$ has color $c$ if $x+y \equiv c \pmod{n}$. A {\it ribbon tile} of order $n$ is a connected polyomino containing exactly one square of each color. We show that the set of order-$n$ ribbon tilings of a simply connected region $R$ is in one-to-one correspondence with a set of {\it height functions} from the vertices of $R$ to $\mathbb Z^{n}$ satisfying certain difference restrictions. It is also in one-to-one correspondence with the set of acyclic orientations of a certain partially oriented graph. Using these facts, we describe a linear (in the area of $R$) algorithm for determining whether $R$ can be tiled with ribbon tiles of order $n$ and producing such a tiling when one exists. We also resolve a conjecture of Pak by showing that any pair of order-$n$ ribbon tilings of $R$ can be connected by a sequence of local replacement moves. Some of our results are generalizations of known results for order-2 ribbon tilings (a.k.a. domino tilings). We also discuss applications of multidimensional height functions to a broader class of polyomino tiling problems.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures. This version has been slightly revised (new references, a new illustration, and a few cosmetic changes). To appear in Transactions of the American Mathematical Societ

Well structured program equivalence is highly undecidable

We show that strict deterministic propositional dynamic logic with intersection is highly undecidable, solving a problem in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In fact we show something quite a bit stronger. We introduce the construction of program equivalence, which returns the value $\mathsf{T}$ precisely when two given programs are equivalent on halting computations. We show that virtually any variant of propositional dynamic logic has $\Pi_1^1$-hard validity problem if it can express even just the equivalence of well-structured programs with the empty program \texttt{skip}. We also show, in these cases, that the set of propositional statements valid over finite models is not recursively enumerable, so there is not even an axiomatisation for finitely valid propositions.Comment: 8 page

Planar tautologies hard for resolution.

We prove exponential lower bounds on the resolution proofs of some tautologies, based on rectangular grid graphs. More specifically, we show a 2/sup /spl Omega/(n)/ lower bound for any resolution proof of the mutilated chessboard problem on a 2n/spl times/2n chessboard as well as for the Tseitin tautology (G. Tseitin, 1968) based on the n/spl times/n rectangular grid graph. The former result answers a 35 year old conjecture by J. McCarthy (1964)

Random Tilings: Concepts and Examples

We introduce a concept for random tilings which, comprising the conventional one, is also applicable to tiling ensembles without height representation. In particular, we focus on the random tiling entropy as a function of the tile densities. In this context, and under rather mild assumptions, we prove a generalization of the first random tiling hypothesis which connects the maximum of the entropy with the symmetry of the ensemble. Explicit examples are obtained through the re-interpretation of several exactly solvable models. This also leads to a counterexample to the analogue of the second random tiling hypothesis about the form of the entropy function near its maximum.Comment: 32 pages, 42 eps-figures, Latex2e updated version, minor grammatical change

A Note on Tiling under Tomographic Constraints

Given a tiling of a 2D grid with several types of tiles, we can count for every row and column how many tiles of each type it intersects. These numbers are called the_projections_. We are interested in the problem of reconstructing a tiling which has given projections. Some simple variants of this problem, involving tiles that are 1x1 or 1x2 rectangles, have been studied in the past, and were proved to be either solvable in polynomial time or NP-complete. In this note we make progress toward a comprehensive classification of various tiling reconstruction problems, by proving NP-completeness results for several sets of tiles.Comment: added one author and a few theorem