Fuglede's conjecture fails in dimension 4

Abstract

In this note we give an example of a set $\W\subset \R^4$ such that $L^2(\W)$ admits an orthonormal basis of exponentials $\{\frac{1}{|\W |^{1/2}}e^{2\pi i x, \xi}\}_{\xi\in\L}$ for some set $\L\subset\R^4$, but which does not tile $\R^4$ by translations. This improves Tao's recent 5-dimensional example, and shows that one direction of Fuglede's conjecture fails already in dimension 4. Some common properties of translational tiles and spectral sets are also proved.