Tilings of the sphere by congruent quadrilaterals II: edge combination $a^3 b$ with rational angles

Abstract

Edge-to-edge tilings of the sphere by congruent quadrilaterals are completely classified in a series of three papers. This second one applies the powerful tool of trigonometric Diophantine equations to classify the case of $a^3b$-quadrilaterals with all angles being rational degrees. There are $12$ sporadic and $3$ infinite sequences of quadrilaterals admitting the $2$-layer earth map tilings together with their modifications, and $3$ sporadic quadrilaterals admitting $4$ exceptional tilings. Among them only $3$ quadrilaterals are convex. New interesting non-edge-to-edge triangular tilings are obtained as a byproduct.