When is the union of two unit intervals a self-similar set satisfying the open set condition?

Let U _λ be the union of two unit intervals with gap λ. We show that U _λ is a self-similar set satisfying the open set condition if and only if U _λ can tile an interval by finitely many of its affine copies (admitting different dilations). Furthermore, each such λ can be characterized as the spectrum of an irreducible double word which represents a tiling pattern. Some further considerations of the set of all such λ’s, as well as the corresponding tiling patterns, are given. The first author was partially supported by the RGC grant and the direct grant in CUHK, Fok Ying Tong Education Foundation and NSFC (10571100). The second author was partially supported by NSFC (70371074) and NFSC (10571104).