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Science 30 November 2007:
Vol. 318. no. 5855, p. 1383
DOI: 10.1126/science.1146352
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Technical Comments

Response to Comment on "Decagonal and Quasi-Crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic Architecture"

Peter J. Lu1* and Paul J. Steinhardt2

Our study showed that both Gunbad-i Kabud and Darb-i Imam tessellations belong to a sequence of Islamic tilings that resolve into a common set of girih tiles, so local similarities are expected. However, historically accurate reconstructions show that Darb-i Imam is unique, the only known example that does not repeat periodically and that displays a self-similar transformation enabling its continuation ad infinitum to a perfect quasi-crystalline pattern.

1 Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Department of Physics and Princeton Center for Theoretical Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: plu{at}fas.harvard.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)