Bounded lattice tiles that pack with another lattice

Abstract

Suppose L and M are full-rank lattices in Euclidean space, such that vol(L) < vol(M). Answering a question of Han and Wang from 2001, we show how to construct a bounded measurable set F (we can even take F to be a finite union of polytopes) such that F+L is a tiling and F+M is a packing. If we do not require measurability of F it is often possible that a set F can be found tiling with both L and M even when L and M have different volumes, for instance if their intersection is trivial. We also show here that such a set can never be bounded if L and M have different volumes.