DATE: Thursday, March 1, 2012
TIME: 5:15–6:15 pm
PLACE: MS 6620 (Grad Lounge)
TITLE: Brick walls and easy tiling problems
ABSTRACT:
Tiling problems abound in recreational mathematics, while also being seriously
studied by logicians, computer scientists, and combinatorialists. The sizes of
tileable rectangular regions by a set of tiles is an example of a Klarner
system. We will show that such systems are finitely generated (analogous to
Hilbert's basis theorem), and briefly mention some applications. If time
permits, we will discuss some new results that relate to this theorem.
As usual, the talk will be self-contained; in particular, the intersection with
the GSO talk last year on "Magic carpets and hard tiling problems" is the
necessary and sufficient basic background for this talk.