Combinatorial properties of double square tiles

We study the combinatorial properties and the problem of generating exhaustively double square tiles, i.e. polyominoes yielding two distinct periodic tilings by translated copies such that every polyomino in the tiling is surrounded by exactly four copies. We show in particular that every prime double square tile may be obtained from the unit square by applying successively some invertible operators on double squares. As a consequence, we prove a conjecture of Provençal and Vuillon [17] stating that these polyominoes are invariant under rotation by angle π.