Embedding parallelohedra into primitive cubic networks and structural automata description

Acta Crystallogr A Found Adv. 2020 Nov 1;76(Pt 6):698-712. doi: 10.1107/S2053273320011663. Epub 2020 Oct 23.

Abstract

The main goal of the paper is to contribute to the agenda of developing an algorithmic model for crystallization and measuring the complexity of crystals by constructing embeddings of 3D parallelohedra into a primitive cubic network (pcu net). It is proved that any parallelohedron P as well as tiling by P, except the rhombic dodecahedron, can be embedded into the 3D pcu net. It is proved that for the rhombic dodecahedron embedding into the 3D pcu net does not exist; however, embedding into the 4D pcu net exists. The question of how many ways the embedding of a parallelohedron can be constructed is answered. For each parallelohedron, the deterministic finite automaton is developed which models the growth of the crystalline structure with the same combinatorial type as the given parallelohedron.

Keywords: crystalline structures; deterministic finite automata; parallelohedra; primitive cubic nets; structural automata.