A pentagonal number theorem for tribone tilings

Abstract: Conway and Lagarias showed that certain roughly triangular regions in the hexagonal grid cannot be tiled by shapes Thurston later dubbed tribones. Here we study a two-parameter family of roughly hexagonal regions in the hexagonal grid and show that a tiling by tribones exists if and only if the two parameters associated with the region are the paired pentagonal numbers $k(3k \pm 1)/2$.