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We introduce the forward limit set $\Lambda$ of a semigroup $S$ generated by a family of substitutions of a finite alphabet, which typically coincides with the set of all possible s-adic limits of that family. We provide several alternative characterisations of the forward limit set. For instance, we prove that $\Lambda$ is the unique maximal closed and strongly $S$-invariant subset of the space of all infinite words, and we prove that it is the closure of the set of images of all fixed points under $S$. It is usually difficult to compute a forward limit set explicitly; however, we show that, provided certain assumptions hold, $\Lambda$ is uncountable, and we supply upper bounds on its size in terms of logarithmic Hausdorff dimension., Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures

We determine asymptotic growth rates for lengths of monochromatic arithmetic progressions in certain automatic sequences. In particular, we look at (one-sided) fixed points of aperiodic, primitive, bijective substitutions and spin substitutions, which are generalisations of the Thue--Morse and Rudin--Shapiro substitutions, respectively. For such infinite words, we show that there exists a subsequence $\left\{d_n\right\}$ of differences along which the maximum length $A(d_n)$ of a monochromatic arithmetic progression (with fixed difference $d_n$) grows at least polynomially in $d_n$. Explicit upper and lower bounds for the growth exponent can be derived from a finite group associated to the substitution. As an application, we obtain bounds for a van der Waerden-type number for a class of colourings parametrised by the size of the alphabet and the length of the substitution., Comment: 29 pages, comments are welcome

We study the level-spacing statistics for non-interacting Hamiltonians defined on the two-dimensional quasiperiodic Ammann--Beenker (AB) tiling. When applying the numerical procedure of "unfolding", these spectral properties in each irreducible sector are known to be well-described by the universal Gaussian orthogonal random matrix ensemble. However, the validity and numerical stability of the unfolding procedure has occasionally been questioned due to the fractal self-similarity in the density of states for such quasiperiodic systems. Here, using the so-called $r$-value statistics for random matrices, $P(r)$, for which no unfolding is needed, we show that the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble again emerges as the most convincing level statistics for each irreducible sector. The results are extended to random-AB tilings where random flips of vertex connections lead to the irreducibility., Comment: 5 PRB-style pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review B, with additional results not available in the PRB

We present results on the existence of long arithmetic progressions in the Thue-Morse word and in a class of generalised Thue-Morse words. Our arguments are inspired by van der Waerden's proof for the existence of arbitrary long monochromatic arithmetic progressions in any finite colouring of the (positive) integers., Comment: 23 pages; comments on binary/non-binary bijective case clarified and result for the binary case stated explicitly in proposition 34

Tilings based on the cut and project method are key model systems for the description of aperiodic solids. Typically, quantities of interest in crystallography involve averaging over large patches, and are well defined only in the infinite-volume limit. In particular, this is the case for autocorrelation and diffraction measures. For cut and project systems, the averaging can conveniently be transferred to internal space, which means dealing with the corresponding windows. We illustrate this by the example of averaged shelling numbers for the Fibonacci tiling and review the standard approach to the diffraction for this example. Further, we discuss recent developments for inflation-symmetric cut and project structures, which are based on an internal counterpart of the renormalisation cocycle. Finally, we briefly review the notion of hyperuniformity, which has recently gained popularity, and its application to aperiodic structures., Comment: Minor adjustments, including slight change of title. 13 pages, many figures. Topical review linked to invited keynote lecture at the 2020 IUCr congress (which has been postponed to 2021)

Several variants of the classic Fibonacci inflation tiling are considered in an illustrative fashion, in one and in two dimensions, with an eye on changes or robustness of diffraction and dynamical spectra. In one dimension, we consider extension mechanisms of deterministic and of stochastic nature, while we look at direct product variations in a planar extension. For the pure point part, we systematically employ a cocycle approach that is based on the underlying renormalisation structure. It allows explicit calculations, particularly in cases where one meets regular model sets with Rauzy fractals as windows., Comment: 22 pages, some typos corrected

Primitive inflation tilings of the real line with finitely many tiles of natural length and a Pisot--Vijayaraghavan unit as inflation factor are considered. We present an approach to the pure point part of their diffraction spectrum on the basis of a Fourier matrix cocycle in internal space. This cocycle leads to a transfer matrix equation and thus to a closed expression of matrix Riesz product type for the Fourier transforms of the windows for the covering model sets. In general, these windows are complicated Rauzy fractals and thus difficult to handle. Equivalently, this approach permits a construction of the (always continuously representable) eigenfunctions for the translation dynamical system induced by the inflation rule. We review and further develop the underlying theory, and illustrate it with the family of Pisa substitutions, with special emphasis on the Tribonacci case., Comment: 31 pages, several figures; revised version

Mathematicians have been interested in non-periodic tilings of space for decades; however, it was the unexpected discovery of non-periodically ordered structures in intermetallic alloys which brought this subject into the limelight. These fascinating materials, now called quasicrystals, are characterised by the coexistence of long-range atomic order and 'forbidden' symmetries which are incompatible with periodic arrangements in three-dimensional space. In the first part of this review, we summarise the main properties of quasicrystals, and describe how their structures relate to non-periodic tilings of space. The celebrated Penrose and Ammann-Beenker tilings are introduced as illustrative examples. The second part provides a closer look at the underlying mathematics. Starting from Bohr's theory of quasiperiodic functions, a general framework for constructing non-periodic tilings of space is described, and an alternative description as quasiperiodic coverings by overlapping clusters is discussed., Comment: This article is made available for reference. It was written following the March 2006 workshop "The World a Jigsaw: Tessellations in the Sciences" at the Lorentz Center, and due to be published in a book entitled "Tessellations in the Sciences: Virtues, Techniques and Applications of Geometric Tilings" (eds R van de Weijgaert, G Vegter, J Ritzerveld and V Icke), but annoyingly this never happened

For point sets and tilings that can be constructed with the projection method, one has a good understanding of the correlation structure, and also of the corresponding spectra, both in the dynamical and in the diffraction sense. For systems defined by substitution or inflation rules, the situation is less favourable, in particular beyond the much-studied class of Pisot substitutions. In this contribution, the geometric inflation rule is employed to access the pair correlation measures of self-similar and self-affine inflation tilings and their Fourier transforms by means of exact renormalisation relations. In particular, we look into sufficient criteria for the absence of absolutely continuous spectral contributions, and illustrate this with examples from the class of block substitutions. We also discuss the Frank-Robinson tiling, as a planar example with infinite local complexity and singular continuous spectrum., Comment: 32 pages, 6 figures; minor changes and updated references

The scaling behaviour of the diffraction intensity near the origin is investigated for (partially) ordered systems, with an emphasis on illustrative, rigorous results. This is an established method to detect and quantify the fluctuation behaviour known under the term hyperuniformity. Here, we consider one-dimensional systems with pure point, singular continuous and absolutely continuous diffraction spectra, which include perfectly ordered cut and project and inflation point sets as well as systems with stochastic disorder., Comment: 24 pages

The well-known plastic number substitution gives rise to a ternary inflation tiling of the real line whose inflation factor is the smallest Pisot-Vijayaraghavan number. The corresponding dynamical system has pure point spectrum, and the associated control point sets can be described as regular model sets whose windows in two-dimensional internal space are Rauzy fractals with a complicated structure. Here, we calculate the resulting pure point diffraction measure via a Fourier matrix cocycle, which admits a closed formula for the Fourier transform of the Rauzy fractals, via a rapidly converging infinite product., Comment: 7 pages, 4 colour figures; revised version including additional material

The family of primitive binary substitutions defined by $1 \mapsto 0 \mapsto 0 1^m$ with $m\in\mathbb{N}$ is investigated. The spectral type of the corresponding diffraction measure is analysed for its geometric realisation with prototiles (intervals) of natural length. Apart from the well-known Fibonacci inflation ($m=1$), the inflation rules either have integer inflation factors, but non-constant length, or are of non-Pisot type. We show that all of them have singular diffraction, either of pure point type or essentially singular continuous., Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure, 1 table; revised version with minor improvements and updates

By generalising Rudin's construction of an aperiodic sequence, we derive new substitution-based structures which have purely absolutely continuous diffraction and mixed dynamical spectrum, with absolutely continuous and pure point parts. We discuss several examples, including a construction based on Fourier matrices which yields constant-length substitutions for any length., Comment: 13 pages

A one-parameter family of binary inflation rules in one dimension is considered. Apart from the first member, which is the well-known Fibonacci rule, no inflation factor is a unit. We identify all cases with pure point spectrum, and discuss the diffraction spectra of the other members of the family. Apart from the trivial Bragg peaks at the origin, they have purely singular continuous diffraction., Comment: 4 pages

One of the simplest non-Pisot substitution rules is investigated in its geometric version as a tiling with intervals of natural length as prototiles. Via a detailed renormalisation analysis of the pair correlation functions, we show that the diffraction measure cannot comprise any absolutely continuous component. This implies that the diffraction, apart from a trivial Bragg peak at the origin, is purely singular continuous. En route, we derive various geometric and algebraic properties of the underlying Delone dynamical system, which we expect to be relevant in other such systems as well., Comment: 40 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

We show that a recently proposed Rudin-Shapiro-like sequence, with balanced weights, has purely singular continuous diffraction spectrum, in contrast to the well-known Rudin-Shapiro sequence whose diffraction is absolutely continuous. This answers a question that had been raised about this new sequence., Comment: 7 pages

Modifying Rudin's original construction of the Rudin-Shapiro sequence, we derive a new substitution-based sequence with purely absolutely continuous diffraction spectrum., Comment: 5 pages

The embedding of a given point set with non-crystallographic symmetry into higher-dimensional space is reviewed, with special emphasis on the Minkowski embedding known from number theory. This is a natural choice that does not require an a priori construction of a lattice in relation to a given symmetry group. Instead, some elementary properties of the point set in physical space are used, and explicit methods are described. This approach works particularly well for the standard symmetries encountered in the practical study of quasicrystalline phases. We also demonstrate this with a recent experimental example, taken from a sample with square-triangle tiling structure and (approximate) twelvefold symmetry., Comment: 8 pages, many figures

This article provides a brief introductory account of the theory of aperiodic order., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

Crystals are paradigms of ordered structures. While order was once seen as synonymous with lattice periodic arrangements, the discoveries of incommensurate crystals and quasicrystals led to a more general perception of crystalline order, encompassing both periodic and aperiodic crystals. The current definition of crystals rests on their essentially point-like diffraction. Considering a number of recently investigated toy systems, with particular emphasis on non-crystalline ordered structures, the limits of the current definition are explored., Comment: 33 pages, many pictures

This article presents a very gentle introduction to the field of aperiodic order, aimed at a general audience. It is intended to provide a "Snapshot of Modern Mathematics" relating to the Oberwolfach mini-workshop "Dynamical versus Diffraction Spectra in the Theory of Quasicrystals" in November/December 2014., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

The present state of mathematical diffraction theory for systems with continuous spectral components is reviewed and extended. We begin with a discussion of various characteristic examples with singular or absolutely continuous diffraction, and then continue with a more general exposition of a systematic approach via stationary stochastic point processes. Here, the intensity measure of the Palm measure takes the role of the autocorrelation measure in the traditional approach. We furthermore introduce a `Palm-type' measure for general complex-valued random measures that are stationary and ergodic, and relate its intensity measure to the autocorrelation measure., Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures; sections 1-5 are a review based on characteristic examples, while section 6 contains new material on the point process approach to diffraction

A brief summary of recent developments in mathematical diffraction theory is given. Particular emphasis is placed on systems with aperiodic order and continuous spectral components. We restrict ourselves to some key results and refer to the literature for further details., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Tutorial talk at ICQ12

We revisit the well-known and much studied Riesz product representation of the Thue-Morse diffraction measure, which is also the maximal spectral measure for the corresponding dynamical spectrum in the complement of the pure point part. The known scaling relations are summarised, and some new findings are explained., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Revised version with some corrections

The Thue-Morse system is a paradigm of singular continuous diffraction in one dimension. Here, we consider a planar system, constructed by a bijective block substitution rule, which is locally equivalent to the squiral inflation rule. For balanced weights, its diffraction is purely singular continuous. The diffraction measure is a two-dimensional Riesz product that can be calculated explicitly., Comment: 6 pages. 4 figures; talk presented at Aperiodic 2012 (Cairns). For a full mathematical treatment see arXiv:1205.1384

The theory of substitution sequences and their higher-dimensional analogues is intimately connected with symbolic dynamics. By systematically studying the factors (in the sense of dynamical systems theory) of a substitution dynamical system, one can reach a better understanding of spectral and topological properties. We illustrate this point of view by means of some characteristic examples, including a rather universal substitution in one dimension as well as the squiral and the table tilings of the plane., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures; minor updates

Aperiodic tilings with a small number of prototiles are of particular interest, both theoretically and for applications in crystallography. In this direction, many people have tried to construct aperiodic tilings that are built from a single prototile with nearest neighbour matching rules, which is then called a monotile. One strand of the search for a planar monotile has focussed on hexagonal analogues of Wang tiles. This led to two inflation tilings with interesting structural details. Both possess aperiodic local rules that define hulls with a model set structure. We review them in comparison, and clarify their relation with the classic half-hex tiling. In particular, we formulate various known results in a more comparative way, and augment them with some new results on the geometry and the topology of the underlying tiling spaces., Comment: 19 pages,lots of colour figures

Non-periodic systems have become more important in recent years, both theoretically and practically. Their description via Delone sets requires the extension of many standard concepts of crystallography. Here, we summarise some useful notions of symmetry and aperiodicity, with special focus on the concept of the hull of a Delone set. Our aim is to contribute to a more systematic and consistent use of the different notions., Comment: 13 pages

Kinematic diffraction is well suited for a mathematical approach via measures, which has substantially been developed since the discovery of quasicrystals. The need for further insight emerged from the question of which distributions of matter, beyond perfect crystals, lead to pure point diffraction, hence to sharp Bragg peaks only. More recently, it has become apparent that one also has to study continuous diffraction in more detail, with a careful analysis of the different types of diffuse scattering involved. In this review, we summarise some key results, with particular emphasis on non-periodic structures. We choose an exposition on the basis of characteristic examples, while we refer to the existing literature for proofs and further details., Comment: 25 pages, lots of figures

The squiral inflation rule is equivalent to a bijective block substitution rule and leads to an interesting lattice dynamical system under the action of $\mathbb{Z}^{2}$. In particular, its balanced version has purely singular continuous diffraction. The dynamical spectrum is of mixed type, with pure point and singular continuous components. We present a constructive proof that admits a generalisation to bijective block substitutions of trivial height on $\mathbb{Z}^{d}$., Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures

Diffraction methods are used to detect atomic order in solids. While uniquely ergodic systems with pure point diffraction have zero entropy, the relation between diffraction and entropy is not as straightforward in general. In particular, there exist families of homometric systems, which are systems sharing the same diffraction, with varying entropy. We summarise the present state of understanding by several characteristic examples., Comment: 7 pages

The classic middle-thirds Cantor set leads to a singular continuous measure via a distribution function that is know as the Devil's staircase. The support of the Cantor measure is a set of zero Lebesgue measure. Here, we discuss a class of singular continuous measures that emerge in mathematical diffraction theory and lead to somewhat similar distribution functions, yet with significant differences. Various properties of these measures are derived. In particular, these measures have supports of full Lebesgue measure and possess strictly increasing distribution functions. In this sense, they mark the opposite end of what is possible for singular continuous measures. For each member of the family, the underlying dynamical system possesses a topological factor with maximal pure point spectrum, and a close relation to a solenoid, which is the Kronecker factor of the system. The inflation action on the continuous hull is sufficiently explicit to permit the calculation of the corresponding dynamical zeta functions. This is achieved as a corollary of analysing the Anderson-Putnam complex for the determination of the cohomological invariants of the corresponding tiling spaces., Comment: Dedicated to Robert V. Moody on the occasion of his 70th birthday; revised and improved version

Mathematical diffraction theory is concerned with the analysis of the diffraction image of a given structure and the corresponding inverse problem of structure determination. In recent years, the understanding of systems with continuous and mixed spectra has improved considerably. Simultaneously, their relevance has grown in practice as well. In this context, the phenomenon of homometry shows various unexpected new facets. This is particularly so for systems with stochastic components. After the introduction to the mathematical tools, we briefly discuss pure point spectra, based on the Poisson summation formula for lattice Dirac combs. This provides an elegant approach to the diffraction formulas of infinite crystals and quasicrystals. We continue by considering classic deterministic examples with singular or absolutely continuous diffraction spectra. In particular, we recall an isospectral family of structures with continuously varying entropy. We close with a summary of more recent results on the diffraction of dynamical systems of algebraic or stochastic origin., Comment: 30 pages, invited review

The pinwheel tiling is the paradigm for a substitution tiling with circular symmetry, in the sense that the corresponding autocorrelation is circularly symmetric. As a consequence, its diffraction measure is also circularly symmetric, so the pinwheel diffraction consists of sharp rings and, possibly, a continuous component with circular symmetry. We consider some combinatorial properties of the tiles and their orientations, and a numerical approach to the diffraction of weighted pinwheel point sets., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures

The propagation of s- and p-polarized light through quasiperiodic multilayers, consisting of layers with different refractive indices, is studied by the transfer matrix method. In particular, we focus on the transmission coefficient of the systems in dependency on the incidence angle and on the ratio of the refractive indices. We obtain additional bands with almost complete transmission in the quasiperiodic systems at frequencies in the range of the photonic band gap of a system with a periodic alignment of the two materials for both types of light polarization. With increasing incidence angle these bands bend towards higher frequencies, where the curvature of the transmission bands in the quasiperiodic stack depends on the metallic mean of the construction rule. Additionally, in the quasiperiodic systems for p-polarized light the bands show almost complete transmission near the Brewster's angle in contrast to the results for s-polarized light. Further, we present results for the influence of the refractive indices at the midgap frequency of the periodic stack, where the quasiperiodicity was found to be most effective., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

Limit periodic point sets are aperiodic structures with pure point diffraction supported on a countably, but not finitely generated Fourier module that is based on a lattice and certain integer multiples of it. Examples are cut and project sets with p-adic internal spaces. We illustrate this by explicit results for the diffraction measures of two examples with 2-adic internal spaces. The first and well-known example is the period doubling sequence in one dimension, which is based on the period doubling substitution rule. The second example is a weighted planar point set that is derived from the classic chair tiling in the plane. It can be described as a fixed point of a block substitution rule., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures; paper presented at ICQ11 (Sapporo)

In this paper, we report results for the wave packet dynamics in a class of quasiperiodic chains consisting of two types of weakly coupled clusters. The dynamics are studied by means of the return probability and the mean square displacement. The wave packets show anomalous diffusion in a stepwise process of fast expansion followed by time intervals of confined wave packet width. Applying perturbation theory, where the coupling parameter v is treated as perturbation, the properties of the eigenstates of the system are investigated and related to the structure of the chains. The results show the appearance of non-localized states only in sufficiently high orders of the perturbation expansions. Further, we compare these results to the exact solutions obtained by numerical diagonalization. This shows that eigenstates spread across the entire chain for v>0, while in the limit v->0 ergodicity is broken and eigenstates only spread across clusters of the same type, in contradistinction to trivial localization for v=0. Caused by this ergodicity breaking, the wave packet dynamics change significantly in the presence of an impurity offering the possibility to control its long-term dynamics., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures

Mathematical diffraction theory is concerned with the diffraction image of a given structure and the corresponding inverse problem of structure determination. In recent years, the understanding of systems with continuous and mixed spectra has improved considerably. Moreover, the phenomenon of homometry shows various unexpected new facets. Here, we report on some of the recent results in an exemplary and informal fashion., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure; paper presented at Aperiodic 2009 (Liverpool)

We review the recent progress in the investigation of powerfree words, with particular emphasis on binary cubefree and ternary squarefree words. Besides various bounds on the entropy, we provide bounds on letter frequencies and consider their empirical distribution obtained by an enumeration of binary cubefree words up to length 80., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures

Diffraction methods are at the heart of structure determination of solids. While Bragg-like scattering (pure point diffraction) is a characteristic feature of crystals and quasicrystals, it is not straightforward to interpret continuous diffraction intensities, which are generally linked to the presence of disorder. However, based on simple model systems, we demonstrate that it may be impossible to draw conclusions on the degree of order in the system from its diffraction image. In particular, we construct a family of one-dimensional binary systems which cover the entire entropy range but still share the same purely diffuse diffraction spectrum., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; two typos in the recursion relations for the autocorrelation coefficients were corrected

The paradigm for singular continuous spectra in symbolic dynamics and in mathematical diffraction is provided by the Thue-Morse chain, in its realisation as a binary sequence with values in $\{\pm 1\}$. We revisit this example and derive a functional equation together with an explicit form of the corresponding singular continuous diffraction measure, which is related to the known representation as a Riesz product., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure; revised and improved version

The inverse problem of diffraction theory in essence amounts to the reconstruction of the atomic positions of a solid from its diffraction image. From a mathematical perspective, this is a notoriously difficult problem, even in the idealised situation of perfect diffraction from an infinite structure. Here, the problem is analysed via the autocorrelation measure of the underlying point set, where two point sets are called homometric when they share the same autocorrelation. For the class of mathematical quasicrystals within a given cut and project scheme, the homometry problem becomes equivalent to Matheron's covariogram problem, in the sense of determining the window from its covariogram. Although certain uniqueness results are known for convex windows, interesting examples of distinct homometric model sets already emerge in the plane. The uncertainty level increases in the presence of diffuse scattering. Already in one dimension, a mixed spectrum can be compatible with structures of different entropy. We expand on this example by constructing a family of mixed systems with fixed diffraction image but varying entropy. We also outline how this generalises to higher dimension., Comment: 8 pages

The coincidence site lattices of the root lattice $A_4$ are considered, and the statistics of the corresponding coincidence rotations according to their indices is expressed in terms of a Dirichlet series generating function. This is possible via an embedding of $A_4$ into the icosian ring with its rich arithmetic structure, which recently (arXiv:math.MG/0702448) led to the classification of the similar sublattices of $A_4$., Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure

Two Delone sets are called homometric when they share the same autocorrelation or Patterson measure. A model set LAMBDA within a given cut and project scheme is a Delone set that is defined through a window W in internal space. The autocorrelation measure of LAMBDA is a pure point measure whose coefficients can be calculated via the so-called covariogram of W. Two windows with the same covariogram thus result in homometric model sets. On the other hand, the inverse problem of determining LAMBDA from its diffraction image ultimately amounts to reconstructing W from its covariogram. This is also known as Matheron's covariogram problem. It is well studied in convex geometry, where certain uniqueness results have been obtained in recent years. However, for non-convex windows, uniqueness fails in a relevant way, so that interesting applications to the homometry problem emerge. We discuss this in a simple setting and show a planar example of distinct homometric model sets., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

Diffraction images with continuous rotation symmetry arise from amorphous systems, but also from regular crystals when investigated by powder diffraction. On the theoretical side, pinwheel patterns and their higher dimensional generalisations display such symmetries as well, in spite of being perfectly ordered. We present first steps and results towards a general frame to investigate such systems, with emphasis on statistical properties that are helpful to understand and compare the diffraction images. An alternative substitution rule for the pinwheel tiling, with two different prototiles, permits the derivation of several combinatorial and spectral properties of this still somewhat enigmatic example. These results are compared with properties of the square lattice and its powder diffraction., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures