Resnikoff silver numbers and tilings of the half-line (Dedicated to the memory of H.L.Resnikoff)

Abstract

Building on work by H.L.Resnikoff we consider (Resnikoff) silver numbers, which generalize the familiar golden number. By definition, a silver number is the largest positive root of a certain polynomial called silver polynomial. In turn, a corresponding companion matrix of a silver polynomial gives rise to a well known construction of inflationary tilings of the (non-negative) real half-line, via an iteration of inflation and substitution. Resnikoff noted for the golden number $\phi$ that this tiling corresponds to the set of what he called $\phi$-integers. We generalize this result for a special class of silver numbers, the distinguished silver numbers, by showing that the integers for a distinguished silver number give rise to a tiling, of which we provide a precise description. For the general problem, whether the integers for an arbitrary silver number give rise to a tiling, we cannot give a general answer, but we show that tilings are obtained if and only if the differences of silver integers satisfy a (rather weak looking) non-accumulation condition. If tilings of this type exist for certain (necessarily non-distinguished) silver numbers, they would seem to form a class of inflationary tilings that differs from those obtained by inflation and substitution. In an Appendix we recall necessary notions and -- mostly known -- results, including the inflation-substitution construction principle for (one dimensional) inflationary tilings, in an elementary manner. For the readers' convenience we also collect the pertinent facts about non-negative matrices, thus the construction is accessible with only basic prerequisites from linear algebra and analysis. Finally, in our setting we give a detailed proof of a non-periodicity result that goes back to Penrose.