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On the shape of permutomino tiles

Abstract

International audienceIn this paper we explore the connections between two classes of polyominoes, namely the permu- tominoes and the pseudo-square polyominoes. A permutomino is a polyomino uniquely determined by a pair of permutations. Permutominoes, and in particular convex permutominoes, have been considered in various kinds of problems such as: enumeration, tomographical reconstruction, and algebraic characterization. On the other hand, pseudo-square polyominoes are a class of polyominoes tiling the the plane by translation. The characterization of such objects has been given by Beauquier and Nivat, who proved that a polyomino tiles the plane by translation if and only if it is a pseudo-square or a pseudo- hexagon. In particular, a polyomino is pseudo-square if its boundary word may be factorized as XY Xﰅ Yﰅ, where Xﰅ denotes the path X traveled in the opposite direction. In this paper we relate the two concepts by considering the pseudo-square polyominoes which are also convex permutominoes. By using the Beauquier-Nivat characterization we provide some geometrical and combinatorial properties of such objects, and we show for any fixed X, each word Y such that XYXﰅYﰅ is pseudo-square is prefix of an infinite word Y∞ with period 4|X|N |X|E. Also, we show that XY XﰅYﰅ are centrosymmetric, i.e. they are fixed by rotation of angle π. The proof of this fact is based on the concept of pseudoperiods, a natural generalization of periods

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