English

Three characterizations of a self-similar aperiodic 2-dimensional subshift

Dynamical Systems 2025-07-25 v4

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to illustrate a generalization of the Fibonacci word to the case of 2-dimensional configurations on Z2\mathbb{Z}^2. More precisely, we consider a particular subshift of AZ2\mathcal{A}^{\mathbb{Z}^2} on the alphabet A={0,,15}\mathcal{A}=\{0,\dots,15\} for which we give three characterizations: as the subshift XΦ\mathcal{X}_\Phi generated by a 2-dimensional morphism Φ\Phi defined on A\mathcal{A}; as the Wang shift ΩZ\Omega_\mathcal{Z} defined by a set Z\mathcal{Z} of 16 Wang tiles; as the symbolic dynamical system XPZ,RZ\mathcal{X}_{\mathcal{P}_\mathcal{Z},R_\mathcal{Z}} representing the orbits under some Z2\mathbb{Z}^2-action RZR_\mathcal{Z} defined by rotations on T2\mathbb{T}^2 and coded by some topological partition PZ\mathcal{P}_\mathcal{Z} of T2\mathbb{T}^2 into 16 polygonal atoms. We prove their equality ΩZ=XΦ=XPZ,RZ\Omega_\mathcal{Z} =\mathcal{X}_\Phi=\mathcal{X}_{\mathcal{P}_\mathcal{Z},R_\mathcal{Z}} by showing that they are self-similar with respect to the substitution Φ\Phi. This chapter provides a transversal reading of results divided into four different articles obtained through the study of the Jeandel-Rao Wang shift. It gathers in one place the methods introduced to desubstitute Wang shifts and to desubstitute codings of Z2\mathbb{Z}^2-actions by focussing on a simple 2-dimensional self-similar subshift. SageMath code to find marker tiles and compute the Rauzy induction of Z2\mathbb{Z}^2-rotations is provided allowing to reproduce the computations. The chapter contains many exercises whose solutions are provided at the end.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2012.03892,
  title  = {Three characterizations of a self-similar aperiodic 2-dimensional subshift},
  author = {Sébastien Labbé},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.03892},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

47 pages, 11 figures, 14 blocks of SageMath code, 37 exercises, arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1906.01104. v2: few fixes after Jana Lep\v{s}ov\'a's reading. v3: 65 pages, simplified example to 16 tiles, fixed proof of main result because of nonuniqueness of the self-similar subshift, added solutions to exercises. v4: 64 pages, improvements during review

R2 v1 2026-06-23T20:47:27.876Z