Hilbert's Eighteenth Problem - Anisohedral Tiling in 3 Dimensions

Anisohedral Tiling in 3 Dimensions

The second part of the problem asks whether there exists a polyhedron which tiles 3-dimensional Euclidean space but is not the fundamental region of any space group; that is, which tiles but does not admit an isohedral (tile-transitive) tiling. Such tiles are now known as anisohedral. In asking the problem in three dimensions, Hilbert was probably assuming that no such tile exists in two dimensions; this assumption later turned out to be incorrect.

The first such tile in three dimensions was found by Karl Reinhardt in 1928. The first example in two dimensions was found by Heesch in 1935.

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