Lattice Tilings by Cubes: Whole, Notched and Extended

Abstract

We discuss some problems of lattice tiling via Harmonic Analysis methods. We consider lattice tilings of ${\bf R}^d$ by the unit cube in relation to the Minkowski Conjecture (now a theorem of Hajós) and give a new equivalent form of Hajós's theorem. We also consider "notched cubes" (a cube from which a rectangle has been removed from one of the corners) and show that they admit lattice tilings. This has also been been proved by S. Stein by a direct geometric method. Finally, we exhibit a new class of simple shapes that admit lattice tilings, the "extended cubes", which are unions of two axis-aligned rectangles that share a vertex and have intersection of odd codimension.

In our approach we consider the Fourier Transform of the indicator function of the tile and try to exhibit a lattice of appropriate volume in its zero-set.