MATH 327T Tiling Theory (Not offered 2006-2007; to be offered 2007-2008) (Q)
Since humankind first utilized stones and bricks to create floors, tiling has been a
part of civilization. Practitioners include artists, engineers, designers, architects,
crystallographers, scientists and mathematicians. This course will be an investigation into the mathematical theory of tiling. We will focus on tilings of the
plane, including topics such as the symmetry groups of tilings, the topology of
tilings, the ergodic theory of tilings, the classification of tilings and the aperiodic
Penrose tilings. We will be able to see how algebra can be utilized to solve a
variety of tiling problems. We will also look at knotted tilings in higher dimensions. In addition to several books on the subject, we will work from current research papers.
Format: tutorial. Evaluation will be based on presentations, problem assignments and exams.
Prerequisite: Mathematics 211, and Mathematics 312 or Mathematics 315. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected:10).