10.

1090/mbk/142

THE

TILING
BOOK
An Introduction to the
Mathematical Theory of Tilings
 THE

TILING
BOOK
An Introduction to the
Mathematical Theory of Tilings

COLIN ADAMS
 2020 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 05-01, 05B45, 52-01, 52C20, 52C22,
52C23.

For additional information and updates on this book, visit

[Link]/bookpages/mbk-142

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Adams, Colin (Colin Conrad), 1956- author.
Title: The tiling book : an introduction to the mathematical theory of tilings / Colin Adams.
Description: Providence, Rhode Island : American Mathematical Society, [2022] | Includes bib-
liographical references and index. | Summary: “Mathematics is often seen as a collection of
subjects, each learned one at a time. Although those fields rarely overlap, they are all sub-
sumed under the heading of mathematics as they all rely on rigorous logical deductions from
a set of axioms. But in fact, there are numerous overlaps and interconnections between fields.
And often the most interesting mathematics comes about when connections are made across
the sub-disciplines. Tiling theory happens to be an area where many of the sub-fields of mathe-
matics overlap. Tools can be applied from linear algebra, algebra, analysis, geometry, topology,
and combina- torics. In this book, all of these fields make an appearance. Tiling theory pro-
vides an opportunity to demonstrate the interconnectedness of mathematics”– Provided by
publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022010425 | ISBN 9781470468972 (hardcover; acid-free) | 9781470471019
(ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Tiling (Mathematics) | AMS: Combinatorics – Instructional exposition (text-
books, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to combinatorics. | Combinatorics – Designs and con-
figurations – Combinatorial aspects of tessellation and tiling problems. | Convex and discrete
geometry – Instructional exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to convex
and discrete geometry. | Convex and discrete geometry – Discrete geometry – Tilings in 2 di-
mensions (aspects of discrete geometry). | Convex and discrete geometry – Discrete geometry
– Tilings in n dimensions (aspects of discrete geometry). | Convex and discrete geometry –
Discrete geometry – Quasicrystals and aperiodic tilings in discrete geometry.
Classification: LCC QA166.8 .A33 2022 | DDC 516/.132–dc23/eng20220611
LC record available at [Link]

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 Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

0 Preliminaries 7
0.1 Some Basic Set Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
0.2 Countability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
0.3 Some Basic Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
0.4 Some Basic Linear Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
0.5 Some Basic Analysis and Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
0.6 Some Basic Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1 Introduction to Tiling 21
1.1 What is a Tiling? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.2 Isometries of the Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1.3 Symmetries of Tiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
1.4 Symmetries of Tilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1.5 The Possible Symmetry Groups of Tilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
1.6 How Many Tilings? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

2 Types of Tilings 87
2.1 Uniform Tilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
2.2 Tilings with Regular Vertices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
2.3 Tilings that are not Edge-to-Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
2.4 Tiling via Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
2.5 Random Tilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
2.6 The Extension Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
2.7 Periodic Tilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
2.8 Which Convex Polygons Tile? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
2.9 Balanced Tilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

3 Aperiodic Prototiles 167

3.1 Quasicrystals and Aperiodic Protosets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
3.2 Substitution Tilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
3.3 The Robinson Aperiodic Protoset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
3.4 The Penrose Aperiodic Protosets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
– vi – Contents

3.5 Tilings by Aperiodic Protosets as Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

3.6 The Taylor-Socolar Aperiodic Tile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

4 Tilings in Other Geometries and Other Dimensions 213

4.1 Tilings of the Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
4.2 Tilings of the Hyperbolic Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
4.3 Tilings of Euclidean 3-Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
4.4 Knotted Tilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
4.5 Tilings, Surfaces, and 3-Manifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Appendix 263
A.1 Creating Shapes that Tile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
A.2 Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
A.3 Section Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
A.4 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
A.5 Figure credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

References 288

Index 298
 Preface

Mathematics is often seen as a collection of subjects, each learned one at a time. Although
those fields rarely overlap, they are all subsumed under the heading of mathematics as they all
rely on rigorous logical deductions from a set of axioms.
But in fact, there are numerous overlaps and interconnections between fields. And often the
most interesting mathematics comes about when connections are made across the subdisciplines.
Tiling theory happens to be an area where many of the subfields of mathematics overlap.
Tools can be applied from linear algebra, algebra, analysis, geometry, topology, and combina-
torics. In this book, all of these fields make an appearance. Tiling theory provides an opportunity
to demonstrate the interconnectedness of mathematics.
Tiling theory also has the ingredients to get across the beauty of mathematics:

i. There are beautiful pictures.

ii. Open problems can be stated without having to spend inordinate amounts of time explaining
background.
iii. There is deep mathematics that applies to the field.

This book assumes an introductory background in linear algebra, analysis and/or topology
and algebra, but readers missing one or more of these topics can also get a lot from this book
by either avoiding certain sections or filling in the missing background as they go along. For
instance, linear algebra is only used for affinities in Section 1.5. Analysis in the Euclidean plane
is primarily used in Section 1.4 and 2.6. Topology appears primarily in the definition of a tiling
and in Sections 4.4 and 4.5. Algebra mostly appears in Section 1.5. Even in these cases, the
amount of material used is minimal and appears in a preliminary chapter (Chapter 0), which
is devoted to a quick review of the relevant background. The reader can either start with that
chapter or just read on and return to that chapter when the need arises.
I have used much of the material in this book to teach a semester-long course in tiling theory.
I have taught it both as a lecture course and as a tutorial, where students in small groups present
the material. There is substantially more material here than I could fit in a single semester. Any
of the following sections can be omitted while still hitting the most important ideas of tiling
theory:

2.3, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.9, 3.5, 3.6, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5

There is plenty of fascinating material in these sections, so look them over before deciding
which to cut. For students with less background, proofs of any of the Extension Theorem
(Theorem 2.9), the Periodicity Theorem (Theorem 2.14) and Theorem 2.18 can be omitted. The
proofs of these three are more substantial than the other results proved in the book. Also, Section
– viii – Preface

2.9 on balanced tilings is more technical than most other sections and can easily be skipped.
There are a few caveats. This is not a book that proves everything from the axiomatic point
of view. If there is a geometric fact that is obvious to everyone concerned and for which the
reader could find an axiomatic proof, we do not include the proof. As an example, we do not
prove that reflection in a line in the plane preserves all distances between points. This is evident
enough.
Most of the time, our arguments are geometric. Although some results also have more
algebraic proofs, tilings are about pictures. So, we primarily stick with that approach. But
algebra also plays an important role in tiling theory and will also have its chance.
This book would not exist if not for the wonderful book “Tilings and Patterns", by Branko
Grünbaum and G. C. Shephard. This is where I first learned an appreciation for tilings. Although
the original edition is out of print, Dover has produced a paperback reprint. That book is the
encyclopedia for the current state of affairs in tiling theory as of 1987. The new edition from
2016 is an unabridged copy of the original with the addition of an appendix that updates some of
the topics covered. The reader should look to that book as a much more complete compendium
of results in tiling theory, and certainly anyone interested in pursuing research in tiling theory
should find a copy of that book, and read it front to back.
Many of the topics covered in this book are a subset of the topics covered in “Tilings and
Patterns". That subset was chosen to be what I have found to be the most appealing to students,
and what was already the most appealing to me. But there are some additional topics in this book
that do not appear in “Tilings and Patterns”. Here we will go into substantially more detail on
the isometries of the Euclidean plane. We will also cover random tilings, projections generating
aperiodic tilings, the Taylor-Socolar tile and all of the topics covered in Chapter 4, including
spherical tilings, hyperbolic tilings, 3-dimensional Euclidean tilings, knotted tilings, and tilings
and 3-manifolds.
There are a few sections of this book that overlap more substantially with the corresponding
sections of “Tilings and Patterns". In the notes at the end of the book, I have tried to be as explicit
as possible about that.
The first appendix to the book provides methods for creating interesting tilings. This can be
covered at the very beginning as it allows you to make your own tilings relevant to further topics
covered in the book. It’s also a lot of fun.
Every section ends with at least ten exercises. These are a good way to solidify your
understanding of the material. Starred exercises are more difficult.
Throughout the book, you will find projects. Any of these could be the basis for either a
paper or a presentation. A list of all of them appears in the appendix. You will also find there a
list of resources, including books, web sites and kits.
You will also find open questions throughout the book. It is important to realize how many
simply stated questions still remain to consider. I have done my best to verify that the particular
Preface – ix –

questions are still unanswered at the time of writing. But it is possible that some of these
questions have been answered, either at the time I am writing this or since then.
This book was typeset using the very nice elegantbook template, created by Ethan Deng
and Liam Huang, copyright 2013–2022 ElegantLATEX, available on the web at [Link]
[Link]/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/elegantbook/[Link].
A special thanks to the authors, artists, editors and publishers who have given me permission
to include figures from other sources. I am forever in their debt. The appendix includes a list of
all credits for figures appearing in this book.
And a huge thanks to the reviewers of the earlier draft. The feedback I received was
immensely helpful. A draft of the book was also used in senior-level tiling courses taught by
David Futer at Temple University, Keiko Kawamura at the University of Iowa and May Mei at
Denison University. A very special thanks to all three of them and their students, who gave me
extremely useful feedback.
I also want to thank everyone at the American Mathematical Society who helped with the
production of this book. In particular, Marcia Almeida helped to keep track of all of the necessary
figure credits, a daunting task, Erin Donahue did a great job with the copyediting, and John Brady
worked with me to create the cover design. My editor at AMS, Ina Mette, has been supportive
of me and my various mathematical projects for years. I owe her a tremendous debt.
Thanks are also owed to all of the students to whom I have taught tiling theory. This book
could not exist without their input. I learned from all of them. A special thanks to Cameron
Edgar, Peter Hollander and Liza Jacoby, with whom I worked for nine months cataloging the
possible non-edge-to-edge tilings of the sphere by regular spherical polygons. And thanks to Eli
Miller and John Petrucci, who produced many versions of the figures. They were a huge help!

I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

-Colin Adams
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 Index

(abc    ), 90 antipodal map, 215

Cn , 41 antipodal point, 215
Dn , 42 antiprism, 216
D∞ , 45 aperiodic protoset, 168
FL , 32 Archimedean solids, 216
G~v,p , 32 Archimedean tiling, 90
H(T ), 113 Archimedes, 217
Rθ,p , 31 arm, 181
S(Q), 41 aspect, 99, 122, 129, 173, 239, 249
S(T ), 47 average number of edges per tile, 148
T~v , 31 average number of vertices per tile, 148
[n1 n2     nr ], 96
Bailey, Duane, 200
Å, 14
balanced tiling, 163
e(T ), 148
Berger, Robert, 168
v(T ), 148
Bierberbach, Ludwig, 59
∂A, 16
bijection, 8
σ-morphic protoset, 82
bijective function, 8
n, 87
Bolzano-Weierstrauss Theorem, 134
j-valent tiling, 25
boundary of a set, 16
k-isohedral tiling, 51
bounded set, 15
k-uniform tiling, 91
Bourke, Paul, 123
n-omino, 80
brickwork, 102
n1 , n2 ,    , nr , 88
n1 n2     nr , 88 Cairo tiling, 156
orbH (p), 48 capsid, 213

r-morphic protoset, 75 casting, 243

1-skeleton, 246 Catalan tilings, 272

2-manifold, 255 centroid, 136

3-manifold, 248, 255 circle group, 46

3-torus, 255 closed set, 14

commute, elements in a group, 17
Abelian group, 17 compact, 15
adjacent tiles, 25 complement, 7
affine transformation, 59 composition of a tiling, 174
anisohedral, 52, 154, 235 composition of isometries, 12
– 294 – INDEX

congruent subsets, 12 discrete set of isometries, 48

congruent tilings, 28 domino tiling, 124
conjugation, 18 domino tilings, 102
convergence, 13
edge of a tiling, 23
convergence of sequence of tiles, 135
einstein, 170, 209, 229, 240
convex, 12
elements of a set, 7
Conway Criterion, 77, 83, 266, 272, 278
elliptic isometry, 225
Conway’s Magic Pen, 266, 278
enantiomorphic pair, 78, 90
Conway, John, 70, 71, 77, 130, 173, 239
Engel, P., 236
Coombs, Debora, 200
enveloping a tile, 115
cornered tile, 180
epsilon-disk, 13
cornerless tile, 180
equitransitive tiling, 103
corona, 112, 276
equivalence relation, 7
countable, 9
equivalent tiles, 51
countable tiles in a tiling, 27
equivalent tilings, 28
covering, 21
Euclidean metric, 11
cross, 181
Euclidean plane, 11
crystallographic groups, 59
Euler characteristic, 144, 260
Crystallographic Restriction, 66
Euler, Leonhard, 144
cube-with-knotted-holes, 242
Extension theorem, 133
CurvedSpaces, 278
cyclic group of order n, 41 face, 234
face-to-face tiling, 234
Danzer, Ludwig, 236, 239
Fathauer, Robert, 276
Dawson, Robert, 218
Federation Square, 174
de Bruijn, Nicolaas Govert, 195, 199
Fedorov, Evgraf, 59
Decidability Problem, 168
Fibonacci sequence, 128, 195
Delaunay, Boris, 237
flag, 55
dense set, 27
flag-transitive tiling, 55
dense subset, 14
Fontaine, Anne, 80
diagonalization argument, 10, 93
frieze group, 61
diameter, 49, 108, 141
fundamental domain, 252, 256
diameter of a tile, 25
dihedral angle, 258 genus two surface, 253
dihedral group of order 2n, 42 geodesic, 11
dihedral group of uncountable infinite Girih, 263
order, 45 glide reflection, 32
dihedral tiling, 23 glide reflection, hyperbolic, 226
dimorphic, 241 golden ratio, 187, 195, 197
INDEX – 295 –

Gomory’s Theorem, 127 isogonal tiling, 54, 271

Goodman-Strauss, Chaim, 193, 229 isohedral, 97
Grünbaum, Branko, 236 isohedral tiling, 51
Greek Cross, 78 isometric, 12
group, 17 isometry, 12
group diagram, 59 isometry determined by action on three
group, generating set, 17 noncollinear points, 33
gyrobifastigium, 237, 239 isometry is product of up to three
reflections, 34
Hales, Thomas, 156, 238 isometry preserves angles, 33
half-turn manifold, 256 isometry preserves lines, 33
Hamiltonian cycle, 127 isometry, direct, 31
handlebody, 242, 248 isometry, identity, 31
Hantzsche-Wendt manifold, 256 isometry, indirect, 31
Hausdorff distance, 135 isometry, orientation-preserving, 31
Heegaard splitting, 248 isometry, orientation-reversing, 31
Heesch number, 113, 124, 229 isometry, trivial, 31
Heesch, Heinrich, 53 isomorphic group diagrams, 60
Hilbert’s Problems, 52, 59 isomorphism, 18
Hilbert, David, 52, 59 isotoxal tiling, 54, 271
homeomorphism, 15 IUCr notation, 70
Honeycomb Conjecture, 156, 238
hyperbolic isometry, 225 Johnson, Norman, 218

hyperbolic plane, 222 Jordan Curve Theorem, 26

hyperbolic plane tiling, 254 kaleidoscope tiling, 218, 220

hyperbolic triangle, area, 224 Kaleidotile, 277
hyperplane, 271 Kari, Jarkko, 169
Kelvin’s Conjecture, 238
icosahedrite, 170
Kelvin, Lord, 238
ideal triangle, 224, 229
Kepler, Johannes, 67, 90, 272
incident, 25
Kerschner, Richard, 154
index set, 7
kites and darts, 187
inflation, 171
Klein bottle, 253
injection, 8
injective function, 8 Lagrange’s Theorem, 17
inradius, 137, 160, 176 lattice, 65
integers, 7 Laves tiling, 96, 156
interior of a set, 14 Laves, Fritz, 96
isogonal, 97, 103 least perimeter, 156
– 296 – INDEX

level one triangle, 206 partition, 7

level zero triangle, 205 patch, 28, 109, 116
limit point, 15 patch engulfed by a patch, 109
linear transformation, 13 patch extends to a larger patch, 109
longitude, 251 patch extends to a tiling of the plane, 109
lozenge tiling, 129 Pautze, Stefan, 176
lunar tiling, 218 Penrose, Roger, 170
lune, 213 pentagrid, 270
period parallelogram, 65
Mann, Casey, 106, 114, 116
periodic, 263
Martin, George, 80
periodic tiling, 63, 142
matching condition, 187
Phelan, Weaire, 238
meridian, 251
Philadelphia, 8
Moöbius band, 253
Pigeonhole Principle, 8, 27, 50, 136, 143
monogonal, 90
pinwheel tiling, 173
monogonal tiling, 55
planigon, 272
monohedral tiling, 23
Platonic solids, 240
monomorphic, 241
Poincaré ball model, 258
monomorphic protoset, 75
Poincaré disk model, 222, 258
Morgan, Frank, 156
polygon, 16
Mrs. Perkins’ Quilt, 272
Myers, Joseph, 80 polygon, convex, 25
polygon, corners of, 23
neighbor, 250 polygon, regular, 16, 23
neighborhood, 116 polygon, sides of, 23
neighborhood of a tile, 25 polyhedral tiling, 235
neighboring tiles, 25 polyhedron, 234
non-edge-to-edge tilings, 102 polyomino, 80
non-translational tiling, 168 prism, 216
nonorientable 3-manifold, 257 prismatic tiling, 156
nonorientable surface, 253 product of isometries, 12
protoset, 22
open set, 14
protoset admits a tiling, 22
orbifold notation, 70
prototile, 22
orbit, 48
order of a group, 17
quaquaversal tile, 239
outradius, 137, 141, 142, 151, 160
quarter-turn manifold, 256
packing, 21 quasicrystal, 232
parallelepiped, 234, 236 quasicrystals, 167
INDEX – 297 –

Radin, Charles, 173, 239 squared square problem, 106

random tilings, 122 squared square, perfect, 106
reflection, 32 stabilizer subgroup, 51
regular n-gon, 87 staircase, 195
regular tiling, 55 standard embedding, 242
regular tiling of the hyperbolic plane, 227 stereohedron, 236, 272
regular tilings of sphere, 216 strongly aperiodic, 240
regular vertex, 96 Sturmian word, 201
Reinhardt, K., 53, 154 subgroup, 17
relation, 7 substitution tiling, 173
reptile, 171 substitution tilings, 278
rigid transformation, 12 surjection, 8
Robinson’s aperiodic protoset, 180 surjective function, 8
Robinson, Raphael, 170, 180 surround number, 115
rotation, 31 symmetry group, 41
rotationally symmetrc arc, 265 symmetry of a shape, 41
rotationally symmetric arc, 76, 77 symmetry of a tiling, 47
symmetry type, 60
SCD tile, 239
Schattschneider, Doris, 106 Tasarov, A.S., 229
Schechtman, Dan, 167 Taylor, Joan, 203
Schläfli notation, 56, 215 tessellation, 22
Schmitt, Peter, 82, 239 tetrahedral tiler, 237
Schmitt-Conway-Danzer tile, 239 third-turn manifold, 256
screw motion, 233 Thurtson, W.P., 130
Seifert-Weber 3-manifold, 259 tic-tac-toe, 278
semiregular tiling, 90 tile, definition of, 22
Senechal, Marjorie, 193, 275 tile-transitive tiling, 51
Shephard, G.C., 236 tiling not edge-to-edge, 102
Shubnikov-laves tilings, 272 tiling over a disk, 133
similarity tiling, 175 tiling, n-hedral, 23
sixth-turn manifold, 256 tiling, definition of, 22
smooth patch, 112 tiling, edge-to-edge, 24
Socolar, Joshua, 203 tiling, regular, 23
solid torus, 242 topologically equivalent, 15
spandrel, 123, 124 torus, 66
species of a vertex, 88 torus earth, 251
spherical isometry, 215 transitivity class of tiles, 51
spherical tilings, 213 translation, 31
– 298 – INDEX

triangle inequality, 11, 33 valency of a vertex, 25

triangulation, 246 vertex, 234
trilobite and cross, 193 vertex of a tiling, 23
Truchet tilings, 122 Vertex Restriction Equation, 87
Truchet, Sébastian, 122 Voronoi tiling, 232
Turing machine, 170, 269
wallpaper groups, 59, 67
type of a vertex, 88
Wang tile, 168
uncountability of the real numbers, 10 Wang, Hao, 168
uncountable, 10 Weaire, Denis, 238
uniform, 103 Weaire-Phelan tiling, 238
uniform tiling, 90 weakly aperiodic, 240
unilateral tiling, 105
upper-half-plane model, 230, 270 X-ray diffraction, 167

Valence Restriction Equation, 96 Zalgaller, Viktor, 218