Abstract
The existence and construction of periodic approximations with convergent spectra is crucial in solid state physics for the spectral study of corresponding Schrödinger operators. In a forthcoming work [9] this task was boiled down to the existence and construction of periodic approximations of the underlying dynamical systems in the Hausdorff topology. As a result the one-dimensional systems admitting such approximations are completely classified in the present work. In addition explicit constructions are provided for dynamical systems defined by primitive substitutions covering all studied examples such as the Fibonacci sequence or the Golay-Rudin-Shapiro sequence. One main tool is the description of the Hausdorff topology by the local pattern topology on the dictionaries as well as the GAP-graphs describing the local structure. The connection of branching vertices in the GAP-graphs and defects is discussed.