Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2010
In this paper we study linearly repetitive Delone sets and prove, following the work of Bellissard, Benedetti and Gambaudo, that the hull of a linearly repetitive Delone set admits a properly nested sequence of box decompositions (tower system) with strictly positive and uniformly bounded (in size and norm) transition matrices. This generalizes a result of Durand for linearly recurrent symbolic systems. Furthermore, we apply this result to give a new proof of a classic estimation of Lagarias and Pleasants on the rate of convergence of patch frequencies.