An Optimal Algorithm for Tiling the Plane with a Translated Polyomino

We give a $O(n)$-time algorithm for determining whether translations of a polyomino with $n$ edges can tile the plane. The algorithm is also a $O(n)$-time algorithm for enumerating all such tilings that are also regular, and we prove that at most $\Theta(n)$ such tilings exist.Comment: In proceedings of ISAAC 201

Combinatorial aspects of Escher tilings

International audienceIn the late 30's, Maurits Cornelis Escher astonished the artistic world by producing some puzzling drawings. In particular, the tesselations of the plane obtained by using a single tile appear to be a major concern in his work, drawing attention from the mathematical community. Since a tile in the continuous world can be approximated by a path on a sufficiently small square grid - a widely used method in applications using computer displays - the natural combinatorial object that models the tiles is the polyomino. As polyominoes are encoded by paths on a four letter alphabet coding their contours, the use of combinatorics on words for the study of tiling properties becomes relevant. In this paper we present several results, ranging from recognition of these tiles to their generation, leading also to some surprising links with the well-known sequences of Fibonacci and Pell.Lorsque Maurits Cornelis Escher commença à la fin des années 30 à produire des pavages du plan avec des tuiles, il étonna le monde artistique par la singularité de ses dessins. En particulier, les pavages du plan obtenus avec des copies d'une seule tuile apparaissent souvent dans son œuvre et ont attiré peu à peu l'attention de la communauté mathématique. Puisqu'une tuile dans le monde continu peut être approximée par un chemin sur un réseau carré suffisamment fin - une méthode universellement utilisée dans les applications utilisant des écrans graphiques - l'objet combinatoire qui modèle adéquatement la tuile est le polyomino. Comme ceux-ci sont naturellement codés par des chemins sur un alphabet de quatre lettres, l'utilisation de la combinatoire des mots devient pertinente pour l'étude des propriétés des tuiles pavantes. Nous présentons dans ce papier plusieurs résultats, allant de la reconnaissance de ces tuiles à leur génération, conduisant à des liens surprenants avec les célèbres suites de Fibonacci et de Pell

A parallelogram tile fills the plane by translation in at most two distinct ways

We consider the tilings by translation of a single polyomino or tile on the square grid Z2 (Z exposant 2). It is well-known that there are two regular tilings of the plane, namely, parallelogram and hexagonal tilings. Although there exist tiles admitting an arbitrary number of distinct hexagon tilings, it has been conjectured that no polyomino admits more than two distinct parallelogram tilings. In this paper, we prove this conjecture

A Quasilinear-Time Algorithm for Tiling the Plane Isohedrally with a Polyomino

A plane tiling consisting of congruent copies of a shape is isohedral provided that for any pair of copies, there exists a symmetry of the tiling mapping one copy to the other. We give a O(n log2 n)-time algorithm for deciding if a polyomino with n edges can tile the plane isohedrally. This improves on the O(n18)-time algorithm of Keating and Vince and generalizes recent work by Brlek, Provençal, Fédou, and the second author.SCOPUS: cp.pinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Hierarchical Shape Construction and Complexity for Slidable Polyominoes under Uniform External Forces

Advances in technology have given us the ability to create and manipulate robots for numerous applications at the molecular scale. At this size, fabrication tool limitations motivate the use of simple robots. The individual control of these simple objects can be infeasible. We investigate a model of robot motion planning, based on global external signals, known as the tilt model. Given a board and initial placement of polyominoes, the board may be tilted in any of the 4 cardinal directions, causing all slidable polyominoes to move maximally in the specified direction until blocked. We propose a new hierarchy of shapes and design a single configuration that is strongly universal for any w × h bounded shape within this hierarchy (it can be reconfigured to construct any w × h bounded shape in the hierarchy). This class of shapes constitutes the most general set of buildable shapes in the literature, with most previous work consisting of just the first-level of our hierarchy. We accompany this result with a O(n4 log n)-time algorithm for deciding if a given hole-free shape is a member of the hierarchy. For our second result, we resolve a long-standing open problem within the field: We show that deciding if a given position may be covered by a tile for a given initial board configuration is PSPACEcomplete, even when all movable pieces are 1 × 1 tiles with no glues. We achieve this result by a reduction from Non-deterministic Constraint Logic for a one-player unbounded game

Two infinite families of polyominoes that tile the plane by translation in two distinct ways

It has been proved that, among the polyominoes that tile the plane by translation, the so-called squares tile the plane in at most two distinct ways. In this paper, we focus on double squares, that is, the polyominoes that tile the plane in exactly two distinct ways. Our approach is based on solving equations on words, which allows us to exhibit properties about their shape. Moreover, we describe two infinite families of double squares. The first one is directly linked to Christoffel words and may be interpreted as segments of thick straight lines. The second one stems from the Fibonacci sequence and reveals some fractal features