English

Nonexpansive directions in the Jeandel-Rao Wang shift

Dynamical Systems 2023-10-09 v3

Abstract

We show that {0,φ+3,3φ+2,φ+52}\{0,\varphi+3,-3\varphi+2,-\varphi+\frac{5}{2}\} is the set of slopes of nonexpansive directions for a minimal subshift in the Jeandel-Rao Wang shift, where φ=(1+5)/2\varphi=(1+\sqrt{5})/2 is the golden mean. This set is a topological invariant allowing to distinguish the Jeandel-Rao Wang shift from other subshifts. Moreover, we describe the combinatorial structure of the two resolutions of the Conway worms along the nonexpansive directions in terms of irrational rotations of the unit interval. The introduction finishes with pictures of nonperiodic Wang tilings corresponding to what Conway called the cartwheel tiling in the context of Penrose tilings. The article concludes with open questions regarding the description of octopods and essential holes in the Jeandel-Rao Wang shift.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2206.02414,
  title  = {Nonexpansive directions in the Jeandel-Rao Wang shift},
  author = {Sébastien Labbé and Casey Mann and Jennifer McLoud-Mann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.02414},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

v1: 24 pages, 19 figures; v2: 30 pages, 23 figures, new section with open questions on octopods and essential holes; v3: small fixes

R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:40:08.433Z