Abstract. An SL 2 -tiling is a bi-infinite matrix of positive integers such that each adjacent 2 × 2-submatrix has determinant 1. Such tilings are infinite analogues of Conway-Coxeter friezes, and they have strong links to cluster algebras, combinatorics, mathematical physics, and representation theory.We show that, by means of so-called Conway-Coxeter counting, every SL 2 -tiling arises from a triangulation of the disc with two, three or four accumulation points.This improves earlier results which only discovered SL 2 -tilings with infinitely many entries equal to 1. Indeed, our methods show that there are large classes of tilings with only finitely many entries equal to 1, including a class of tilings with no 1's at all. In the latter case, we show that the minimal entry of a tiling is unique. [18] are rather special, because they have infinitely many entries equal to 1. Our methods reveal that there are large classes of SL 2 -tilings with only finitely many 1's, and even a class of tilings with no 1's at all, see Remark 3.10.
IntroductionIn the latter case, we show that the minimal entry of a tiling is unique, see Lemma 12.4.Motivations for studying SL 2 -tilings. The introduction of SL 2 -tilings in [3] was motivated by applications to linear recurrence relations for certain friezes, and to formulae for cluster variables in Euclidean type, see [3, secs. 7 and 8]. There is an application by Assem and Reutenauer in [2] to formulae for cluster seeds in types A andÃ.