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79 votes
6 answers
4k views

Does every polyomino tile R^n for some n?

This is a question posed by Adam Chalcraft. I am posting it here because I think it deserves wider circulation, and because maybe someone already knows the answer. A polyomino is usually defined to ...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
  • 82.6k
10 votes
1 answer
401 views

How many positions of a tiling polygon can occur simultaneousy?

Let $T$ be a polygon which tiles the plane. For an instance of $T$ (mirrored or not), call the set of its translates a position of $T$. My question: How many different positions can occur in ...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.4k
6 votes
0 answers
657 views

Unique domino tiling

Question: how does one enumerate all star-convex $2n$-vertex sublattices of the plane that have the unique domino-tiling property? Definitions: A subset $S$ of the $xy$-plane is star-convex if there ...
John Murray's user avatar
  • 1,090
4 votes
0 answers
154 views

Hooks, monomers, dimers and Young diagrams: Part I

Following Richard Stanley's pointers regarding my earlier MO question, I decided to "scale-down" the problem and add a slight "twist" to it. Consider the one-line partition $\lambda_n=(n)$ and its ...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
308 views

For what n and t can a square be partitioned into n similar rectangles in t congruence classes?

It is known that a square can be partitioned into three similar rectangles, all mutually non-congruent. I don't think it's possible with four. With what numbers of rectangles can this be achieved? And ...
user avatar
95 votes
5 answers
4k views

Can a row of five equilateral triangles tile a big equilateral triangle?

Can rotations and translations of this shape perfectly tile some equilateral triangle? I originally asked this on math.stackexchange where it was well received and we made some good progress. Here's ...
Oscar Cunningham's user avatar
33 votes
1 answer
7k views

tiling a rectangle with the smallest number of squares

This is based on another thread. For $m,n\in \mathbb N$, let $f(m,n)$ be the minimum number of squares with integer sides needed to tile a $m\times n$ rectangle. Recently, a table of values for $n\le ...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.4k
14 votes
1 answer
1k views

slick-proof-of-trick-for-counting-domino-tilings

The trick for rewriting the number of domino tilings of a simply-connected finite lattice region as the absolute value of the determinant of a matrix (due I believe to Kasteleyn and Percus, but if ...
James Propp's user avatar
  • 19.7k
5 votes
1 answer
213 views

Aperiodic set of corner Wang Tile [closed]

There is quite some reference on aperiodicity of the edge-type of Wang Tile. But I could not yet find aperiodic corner type of Wang Tiles... Could someone provide me some instances (better with ...
user40780's user avatar
  • 867
5 votes
0 answers
150 views

monomer-dimer tiling of a Young diagram

As a modest start, I propose the below problem for a special set of partitions. Perhaps it is known. Let $\lambda_n=(n,n-1,\dots,2,1)$ be the staircase partition and its corresponding Young diagram $...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
142 views

Tradeoffs in translation-invariant tilings of $\mathbb{R}^3$

Suppose I tile $\mathbb{R}^3$ in a ($\mathbb{Z}^3$-)translation-invariant manner. If we insist on the tiling being regular, then we are left with only the cubic tiling. However, suppose that we ...
squiggles's user avatar
  • 238