Diagonals in 2D-tilings and coincidence densities of substitutions

Abstract

We study the diagonals of two-dimensional tilings generated by direct product substitutions. The properties of these diagonals are primarily determined by the eigenvalues of the substitution matrix, but also the order of the letters in the substitution plays a role. We show that the diagonals may fail to be uniformly recurrent, and that the frequencies of letters on the diagonal may not exist. We also highlight the connection with the density of coincidences and overlap distributions.