The three-dimensional fractals of stars with

icosahedral symmetry

A.A. Polyakov
South Ural State University,
Institute of Natural Sciences and
Mathematics, Chelyabinsk, Russia
e-mail: poliakovaa@susu.ru

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Penrose tiling
 How are the fractals related to condensed matter physics?
 Two dimensional fractals of stars are closely connected to the Penrose tiling.
 Penrose tiling [1] is an example of a quasiperiodic 2-dimensional lattice; it is
constructed from two types of rhombuses (Fig. 1). Hundreds of papers are
dedicated to the Penrose tiling, including those related to structural studies of
decagonal quasicrystals.

[1] Penrose R 1978 Pentaplexity: A Class of Non-Periodic Tilings of the Plane Eureca 39 16–22

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Penrose tiling
Figure 1. Penrose tiling ̶ is an example
of two-dimensional quasiperiodic lattice
with global and local axes of fifth order.

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Penrose tiling
Methods of constructing a Penrose tiling:
1) deflation – a replacing each rhombus with a cluster of smaller rhombuses;
2) matching rules;
3) inflation;
4) “cut and project” technics;
5) Wieringa roof

Wieringa roof – three dimensional structure of one type of rhombuses rotated in two
different angles. Its projection onto a plane coincides with Penrose tiling.
[2] Henley C L 1986 Sphere packings and local environments in Penrose tilings Phys. Rev. B 34 797–816
[3] Bruijn N G de 1981 Algebraic theory of Penrose’s nonperiodic tilings of the plane, I, II. Proc. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wet. A 84 39–52, 53–66

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Penrose tiling
Figure 2. Wieringa roof as set of
clusters of five-pointed stars.
Each layer of Wieringa roof can
be described by clusters of five-
pointed stars.

[4] Polyakov A A 2012 Fractal structures

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Penrose tiling
Figure 2. Wieringa roof as set of
clusters of five-pointed stars.
Each layer of Wieringa roof can be
described by clusters of five-
pointed stars.

The stars have two types of

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Fractals of five-pointed stars
Our works on fractals of five pointed stars:
 Clusters of stars [4] in form of stars in Wieringa roof
 Fractals of five-pointed stars[5]
 Constructing of Penrose tiling by the fractals of five pointed stars[6]
 Two approaches to the construction of fractal of stars – deflationary and inflationary[7]

[5] Polyakov A A 2012 Fractal structures of regular pentagonal stars in Penrose tiling Russ. Metall. 2012 719–
722
[6] Polyakov A A 2016 Constructing of Penrose tiling by means of the fractal of five-pointed stars Russ.
Metall. 2016 121–123
[7] Polyakov A A 2019 Construction of Fractals of Stars: Inflationary and Deflationary Approaches Russ.
Metall. 2019 187–189

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Inflationary approach to constructing a two-
dimensional fractal of stars
 Initial five-pointed star, which can have one of two orientations: ‘w’ or ‘b’.
 Generalized star is not displayed. Its size is equal to

where 18 is the golden mean, size number , form a non-decreasing sequence of

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Inflationary approach to constructing a two-
dimensional fractal of stars
 The prefractal of the previous step replicates and is located so that the centres of
the clusters coincide with 10 vertices of the generalized star. A generalized star at
each stage of the construction is characterized by the orientation of ci, which can
be of the type ‘w’ or ‘b’, and size number which determines star’s size. The
resulting fractal is written in a series of size numbers and orientations:

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Inflationary approach to constructing a two-
dimensional fractal of stars
Figure 4. Prefractals:
i
0w -> i0w2w -> i0w2w4b

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Three-dimensional fractals of stars
The ideal lattice for icosahedral quasicrystals [8] is a three-dimensional Penrose tiling with icosahedral
symmetry [9, 10].
We analysed [11] the symmetrical projection of a 6-dimensional cube;
such a projection is used in “cut and project” method to construct a 3-dimensional Penrose tiling.
This projection of the cube (with 64 vertices) can be composed of two three-dimensional stars: the great and
small stellated dodecahedrons (Figure 6).
The edges of the cores of these stars are equal in length. The great stellated dodecahedron has core in form of
icosahedron, the small stellated dodecahedron has core inform of dodecahedron.

[8] Shechtman D, Blech I, Gratias D and Cahn J W 1984 Metallic phase with long-range orientational order and no translational symmetry Phys. Rev. Lett. 53
1951–3
[9] Mackay A L 1982 Crystallography and the Penrose pattern Phys. A Stat. Mech. its Appl. 114 609–613
[10] Levine D and Steinhardt P J 1986 Quasicrystals. I. Definition and structure Phys. Rev. B 34 596–616 ; Socolar J E S and Steinhardt P J 1986 Quasicrystals. II. Unit-
cell configurations Phys. Rev. B 34 617–647
[11] Polyakov A A 2018 Nauka YUrGU 90-99 (in Russian: Polyakov A A Geometric properties of the 6-dimensional cube projection on a three-dimensional space
Science of South Ural State University. Proc. of 70-th sc. conf. Natural Sc. Section 90 – 99 ) http://www.lib.susu.ac.ru/ftd?base=SUSU_KONF&key=000559367)

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Three-dimensional fractals of stars
Figure 4. A great stellated dodecahedron (I) and a small stellated dodecahedron
(D).

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Three-dimensional fractals of stars
Inflationary approach to building a 3-dimensional fractal of stars:

1. The initial polyhedron: the great stellated dodecahedron (I), or the small
stellated dodecahedron (D). Their lengths of the cores edges is the same and equal
to
2. We set a generalized star of type: I or D. The size of its core edges is described by

where N1≥N0 – size number. The original star is replicated, and we arrange the stars
so that their centres coincide with the vertices of the generalized star. The
overlapped vertices of the stars are counted once.

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Three-dimensional fractals of stars
Inflationary approach to building a 3-dimensional fractal of stars:

3. For each prefractal the size number Nk and the type of polyhedron Ck = I or D is
selected . The size and the type of the generalized star is determined by these
characteristics. The resulting set of points (the previous prefractal) is replicated and
is positioned so that centres of sets coincide with the vertices of the generalized
star. Condition Nk-1 ≤ Nk works.

The resulting fractal is written in a series of size numbers and types of stars:

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Three-dimensional fractals of stars

Video 1. The prefractal i0I1I3I.

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Three-dimensional fractals of stars

Video 2. Various views of the prefractal i0I1I3I.

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Three-dimensional fractals of stars

Video 3. The prefractal : i0D2D3I

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Three-dimensional fractals of stars
What are the possible applications of such fractals? 1) It is possible to repeat 3-
dimensional Penrose tiling, or find tilings of another kind; 2) It is possible to
describe the atomic motifs of icosahedral quasicrystals and nanoclusters, or their
diffraction pattern by the fractals 3) it is possible to verify their use as photonic
crystals, since a wide variety of structures can be obtained.
The proposed approach is not limited to stars only; it is possible to apply the
construction technique to other polyhedra, for example, icosahedra and
dodecahedra. The choice of star polyhedra is due to the connection with the two-
dimensional and three-dimensional Penrose tilings, and therefore, with the atomic
lattice of quasicrystals.

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Thank you for your
attention!

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