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TILINGS OF THE SPHERE BY CONGRUENT QUADRILATERALS II: EDGE COMBINATION $a^3b$ WITH RATIONAL ANGLES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2023

YIXI LIAO
Affiliation:
School of Mathematical Sciences Zhejiang Normal University 688 Yingbin Road Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, 321004 China yixiliao@zjnu.edu.cn
ERXIAO WANG*
Affiliation:
School of Mathematical Sciences Zhejiang Normal University 688 Yingbin Road Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, 321004 China
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Abstract

Edge-to-edge tilings of the sphere by congruent quadrilaterals are completely classified in a series of three papers. This second one applies the powerful tool of trigonometric Diophantine equations to classify the case of $a^3b$-quadrilaterals with all angles being rational degrees. There are $12$ sporadic and $3$ infinite sequences of quadrilaterals admitting the two-layer earth map tilings together with their modifications, and $3$ sporadic quadrilaterals admitting $4$ exceptional tilings. Among them only three quadrilaterals are convex. New interesting non-edge-to-edge triangular tilings are obtained as a byproduct.

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Type
Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Foundation Nagoya Mathematical Journal
Figure 0

Figure 1 Quadrilaterals with the edge combination $a^3b$.

Figure 1

Figure 2 $a^2bc$-quadrilateral and a two-layer earth map tiling $T(24 \alpha \beta \delta , 2\gamma ^{12})$.

Figure 2

Table 1 Fifteen sporadic quadrilaterals and their tilings

Figure 3

Table 2 Three infinite sequences of quadrilaterals and their tilings

Figure 4

Figure 3 Four exceptional tilings with $f=16,16,36,36$.

Figure 5

Figure 4 Two very different tilings of Case $(1,6,2,3)/5$ in Table 2.

Figure 6

Figure 5 Two basic flip modifications for certain two-layer earth map tilings.

Figure 7

Figure 6 Four flip modifications for Case $(1,4,2,9)/7$ in Table 2.

Figure 8

Figure 7 The degenerate and subdivision ways to get triangular tilings.

Figure 9

Figure 8 Proof of Lemmas 2.3 and 2.4.

Figure 10

Figure 9 Different adjacent angle deductions of $\alpha ^2\beta ^2$.

Figure 11

Figure 10 A two-layer earth map tiling $T(f\alpha \beta \delta ,2\gamma ^{\frac {f}{2}})$.

Figure 12

Figure 11 Proof of Lemmas 2.12 and 2.13.

Figure 13

Table 3 Nongeneric solutions in Proposition 2.14

Figure 14

Table 4 All $29$ sporadic convex rational $a^3b$-quadrilaterals

Figure 15

Figure 12 $T(14\alpha ^2\beta ,8\alpha \delta ^3,10\beta \gamma ^3,6\beta ^2\gamma \delta ^2)$.

Figure 16

Table 5 The AVC for $\alpha =\frac {7}{12}-\frac {1}{f},\beta =\frac {1}{3}+\frac {4}{f},\gamma =\frac {5}{6}-\frac {2}{f}, \delta =\frac {1}{4}+\frac {3}{f}$

Figure 17

Figure 13 $f=24$, the ${\textit {AVC}}=\{\beta \gamma ^2,\alpha ^3\delta ,\beta ^4,\beta \gamma \delta ^2\}$ admit no tiling.

Figure 18

Figure 14 $f=36$, the ${\textit {AVC}}=\{\beta \gamma ^2, \alpha ^3\delta ,\alpha ^2\beta ^2,\alpha \beta \delta ^3\}$ admit no tiling.

Figure 19

Figure 15 Case $\alpha _2\alpha _3\cdots =\alpha ^2\beta ^2$ admits no tiling.

Figure 20

Figure 16 Case $\alpha _2\alpha _3\cdots =\alpha ^3\delta $ admits $T(18\beta \gamma ^2,6\alpha ^3\delta ,6\alpha ^2\beta ^2,6\alpha \beta \delta ^3,2\delta ^6)$.

Figure 21

Figure 17 $a^3b$-quadrilateral with $\alpha>1,\beta ,\gamma ,\delta <1$.

Figure 22

Figure 18 Tilings by flipping once, or twice with different spacing.

Figure 23

Figure 19 $T((6k-4)\alpha \gamma \delta ,2\beta \gamma ^3,6\alpha \beta ^{k}\delta )$ obtained by flipping three times.

Figure 24

Table 6 Case $\{x_1, x_2\}=\{ \frac {1}{6},\theta \}$ and $\{x_3,x_4\}=\{\frac {\theta }{2},\frac {1}{2}-\frac {\theta }{2}\}$ or $\{x_3,x_4\}=\{\frac {1}{6},\theta \}$ and $\{x_1,x_2\}=\{\frac {\theta }{2},\frac {1}{2}-\frac {\theta }{2}\}$, for some $0<\theta \le \frac {1}{2}$

Figure 25

Table 7 All $29$ solutions induced from Table 3

Figure 26

Figure 20 Degenerate case $\alpha =1$ and the subcase $\gamma +\delta =1$.

Figure 27

Figure 21 Two degenerate $a^3b$-tilings.

Figure 28

Figure 22 Two tilings for $\{(4k-4)\alpha \gamma \delta ,2\beta ^2\gamma ^2,4\alpha \beta ^{k-1}\delta \}$.

Figure 29

Figure 23 $a^3b$-quadrilateral with $\beta>1,\alpha ,\gamma ,\delta <1$.

Figure 30

Figure 24 One possible AAD of $\alpha ^2\beta \gamma ^{k}= \hspace {0.1em}\rule {0.7pt}{0.8em}\hspace {0.1em}^{\beta }\gamma ^{\delta } \hspace {0.1em}\rule {0.7pt}{0.8em}\hspace {0.1em}^{\beta }\alpha ^{\delta } \hspace {0.1em}\rule {1.5pt}{0.8em}\hspace {0.1em}^{\delta }\alpha ^{\beta } \hspace {0.1em}\rule {0.7pt}{0.8em}\hspace {0.1em}^{\delta }\gamma ^{\beta } \hspace {0.1em}\rule {0.7pt}{0.8em}\hspace {0.1em}\cdots $.

Figure 31

Figure 25 One special tiling for $\{(6k-2)\alpha \beta \delta ,2\alpha \delta ^3,2\alpha ^2\beta \gamma ^{k},4\beta \gamma ^{k+1}\}$.

Figure 32

Figure 26 Three special tilings for $\{(6k-2)\alpha \beta \delta ,2\alpha \delta ^3,2\alpha ^2\beta \gamma ^{k},4\beta \gamma ^{k+1}\}$.

Figure 33

Figure 27 $T((6k+2)\alpha \beta \delta ,2\beta \gamma ^{k+1},2\alpha \gamma ^{2k+1}\delta )$.

Figure 34

Figure 28 One possible AAD of $\alpha ^2\gamma ^{k}\delta ^2= \hspace {0.1em}\rule {0.7pt}{0.8em}\hspace {0.1em}\alpha \hspace {0.1em}\rule {1.5pt}{0.8em}\hspace {0.1em}\alpha \hspace {0.1em}\rule {0.7pt}{0.8em}\hspace {0.1em}\cdots $.

Figure 35

Figure 29 Many different tilings for $\{6k\alpha \beta \delta ,2\alpha ^2\gamma ^{k}\delta ^2,4\beta \gamma ^{k+1}\}$.

Figure 36

Table 8 All $10$ subcases of $\{x_1, x_2\}=\{ x_3, x_4\}$

Figure 37

Table 9 Case $\{x_1, x_2\}=\{ \frac {1}{6},\theta \}$ and $\{x_3,x_4\}=\{\frac {\theta }{2},\frac {1}{2}-\frac {\theta }{2}\}$ or $\{x_3,x_4\}=\{\frac {1}{6},\theta \}$ and $\{x_1,x_2\}=\{\frac {\theta }{2},\frac {1}{2}-\frac {\theta }{2}\}$, for some $0<\theta \le \frac {1}{2}$

Figure 38

Figure 30 A special flip modification ($\frac {f+2}{3}$ tiles flipped).

Figure 39

Figure 31 $T(16\alpha \beta \delta ,2\beta \gamma ^4,2\alpha \gamma ^5\delta )$.

Figure 40

Figure 32 $T(14\alpha \beta \delta ,2\alpha ^2\gamma \delta ^2,4\beta \gamma ^4)$.

Figure 41

Table 10 All $10$ solutions induced from Table 3

Figure 42

Figure 33 $\beta =1$ and the subcase $\alpha +\delta =1$.

Figure 43

Figure 34 Two flips of $T(4k\alpha \beta \delta ,2\gamma ^{2k})$ if $\beta =1$ and $\alpha +\delta =1$.

Figure 44

Figure 35 Two possible $\alpha ^2\gamma \delta ^2$ and their AAD.

Figure 45

Figure 36 Two possible AAD for $\beta \gamma ^2$.

Figure 46

Figure 37 Two tilings for $\{8\beta \delta ^2,8\alpha ^2\beta \gamma ,2\gamma ^4\}$.

Figure 47

Figure 38 Stereo-graphic projection for two tilings of $\{8\beta \delta ^2,8\alpha ^2\beta \gamma ,2\gamma ^4\}$.