MathSciDoc: An Archive for Mathematician ∫

This investigation completely classifies the spatial chaos problem in plane edge coloring (Wang tiles) with two symbols. For a set of Wang tiles B, spatial chaos occurs when the spatial entropy h(B) is positive. B is called a minimal cycle generator if P(B) 6= ∅ and P(B′) = ∅ whenever B′ $ B, where P(B) is the set of all periodic patterns on Z2 generated by B. Given a set of Wang tiles B, write B = C1 ∪ C2 ∪ · · · ∪ Ck ∪ N, where Cj, 1 ≤ j ≤ k, are minimal cycle generators and B contains no minimal cycle generator except those contained in C1 ∪ C2 ∪ · · · ∪ Ck. Then, the positivity of spatial entropy h(B) is completely determined by C1 ∪ C2 ∪ · · · ∪ Ck. Furthermore, there are 39 equivalent classes of marginal positive-entropy (MPE) sets of Wang tiles and 18 equivalent classes of saturated zero-entropy (SZE) sets of Wang tiles. For a set of Wang tiles B, h(B) is positive if and only if B contains an MPE set, and h(B) is zero if and only if B is a subset of an SZE set.

Spatial chaos; spatial entropy; Wang tiles