In this paper we study the shifts, which are the shift-invariant and topologically closed sets of configurations over a finite alphabet in Z^d. The minimal shifts are those shifts in which all configurations contain exactly the same patterns. Two classes of shifts play a prominent role in symbolic dynamics, in language theory and in the theory of computability: the shifts of finite type (obtained by forbidding a finite number of finite patterns) and the effective shifts (obtained by forbidding a computably enumerable set of finite patterns). We prove that every effective minimal shift can be represented as a factor of a projective subdynamics on a minimal shift of finite type in a bigger (by 1) dimension. This result transfers to the class of minimal shifts a theorem by M.Hochman known for the class of all effective shifts and thus answers an open question by E. Jeandel. We prove a similar result for quasiperiodic shifts and also show that there exists a quasiperiodic shift of finite type for which Kolmogorov complexity of all patterns of size n\times n is \Omega(n).

In this paper, we study the structure of the set of tilings produced by any given tile-set. For better understanding this structure, we address the set of finite patterns that each tiling contains. This set of patterns can be analyzed in two different contexts: the first one is combinatorial and the other topological. These two approaches have independent merits and, once combined, provide somehow surprising results. The particular case where the set of produced tilings is countable is deeply investigated while we prove that the uncountable case may have a completely different structure. We introduce a pattern preorder and also make use of Cantor-Bendixson rank. Our first main result is that a tile-set that produces only periodic tilings produces only a finite number of them. Our second main result exhibits a tiling with exactly one vector of periodicity in the countable case.

Abstract We study the minimal complexity of tilings of a plane with a given tile set. We note that every tile set admits either no tiling or some tiling with Kolmogorov complexity of its (n×n)-squares. We construct tile sets for which this bound is tight: all (n×n)-squares in all tilings have complexity Ω(n). This adds a quantitative angle to classical results on non-recursivity of tilings—that we also develop in terms of Turing degrees of unsolvability.

We study the minimal complexity of tilings of a plane with a given tile set. We note that any tile set admits either no tiling or some tiling with \ooo(n) Kolmogorov complexity of its (n\times n)-squares. We construct tile sets for which this bound is nearly tight: all tilings have complexity >n/r(n), given any unbounded computable monotone r. This adds a quantitative angle to classical results on non-recursivity of tilings -- that we also develop in terms of Turing degrees of unsolvability.