arXiv research

Characterizes billiard and quasigeodesic flows in polyhedral convex bodies.

This note connects tiling billiards dynamics to Novikov's problem via helicoidal construction.

In this paper we introduce a new dynamical system which we call Angular billiard. It acts on the exterior points of a convex curve in Euclidean plane. In a neighborhood of the boundary curve this system turns out to be dual to the Birkhoff billiard. Using this system we get new results on algebraic Birkhoff conjecture …

This paper proves integrability of Birkhoff billiards inside convex cones.

We introduce a new method for estimating the growth of various quantities arising in dynamical systems. We apply our method to polygonal billiards on surfaces of constant curvature. For instance, we obtain power bounds of degree two plus epsilon in length for the number of billiard orbits between almost all pairs of po…

Locally maximizing orbits studied in twist maps and billiards.

Characterizes rigid and flexible hyperbolic cone metrics and billiards.

Any smooth surface in R^3 may be flattened along the z-axis, and the flattened surface becomes close to a billiard table in R^2 . We show that, under some hypotheses, the geodesic flow of this surface converges locally uniformly to the billiard flow. Moreover, if the billiard is dispersive and has finite horizon, then …

A nice trick for studying the billiard flow in a rational polygon is to unfold the polygon along the trajectories. This gives rise to a translation or half-translation surface tiled by the original polygon, or equivalently an Abelian or quadratic differential. Veech surfaces are a special class of translation surfaces …

We prove that if $ρ\neq1/2$ is a rational number between zero and one, then there is no integer $n>1$ such that $n\tan(πρ)=\tan(nπρ).$ This has interpretations both in the theory of bicycle curves and that of mathematical billiards.

Outer billiards maps on foliated surfaces with specific vector fields.

We give a complete characterization of the relationship between the shape of a Euclidean polygon and the symbolic dynamics of its billiard flow. We prove that the only pairs of tables that can have the same bounce spectrum are right-angled tables that differ by an affine map. The main tool is a new theorem that establi…

New system studies trapped light paths in Euclidean space.

Outer billiards defined on geodesics surfaces in 3D space forms.

This paper connects billiards in ellipses to focal billiards in ellipsoids.

Survey of integrable billiard models and inequalities.

We introduce a new discrete system that arises from ellipsoidal billiards and is closely related to the double reflection nets. The system is defined on the lattice of a uniform honeycomb consisting of rectified hypercubes and cross polytopes. In the $2$-dimensional case, the lattice is regular and it incorporates dyna…

Dan Reznik discovered conserved quantities for ellipses using billiard maps.

Billiard motion in ellipses analyzed with canonical coordinates.

Study geodesic flows, billiards, and metrics on manifolds.

Abstract collects open problems in billiards and symplectic geometry.

Open problems in billiards and optics from a workshop.

Billiard trajectories and geodesics are closely related geometrically.

This paper deals with Hopf type rigidity for convex billiards on surfaces of constant curvature. We prove that the only convex billiard without conjugate points on the Hyperbolic plane or on the Hemisphere is circular billiard.

Method finds differential equations for integrable billiard tables.

Rolling systems limit to billiard models with no-slip collisions.

Study on billiard trajectories with fixed bounces.

Proves Birkhoff-Poritsky conjecture for centrally-symmetric billiards.

Study beta function for convex billiard maps, linking spectral invariants.

A simple proof shows standard billiard for certain convex domains.

We consider billiard ball motion in a convex domain of the Euclidean plane bounded by a piece-wise smooth curve influenced by the constant magnetic field. We show that if there exists a polynomial in velocities integral of the magnetic billiard flow then every smooth piece $γ$ of the boundary must be algebraic and eith…

Uniform hyperbolicity is a strong chaotic property which holds, in particular, for Sinai billiards. In this paper, we consider the case of a nonflat billiard, that is, a Riemannian manifold with boundary. Each trajectory follows the geodesic flow in the interior of the billiard, and bounces when it meets the boundary. …

In this paper we use the Ekeland-Hofer-Zehnder symplectic capacity to provide several bounds and inequalities for the length of the shortest periodic billiard trajectory in a smooth convex body in ${\mathbb R}^{n}$. Our results hold both for classical billiards, as well as for the more general case of Minkowski billiar…

The study finds billiard trajectories with infinitely many reflections in certain cones.

Given a planar compact convex billiard table $T$, we give an algorithm to find the shortest generalised closed billiard orbits on $T$. (Generalised billiard orbits are usual billiard orbits if $T$ has smooth boundary.) This algorithm is finite if $T$ is a polygon and provides an approximation scheme in general. As an i…

Given a domain or, more generally, a Riemannian manifold with boundary, a billiard is the motion of a particle when the field of force is absent. Trajectories of such a motion are geodesics inside the domain; and the particle reflects from the boundary making the angle of incidence equal the angle of reflection. The bi…

Outer billiards studied in complex hyperbolic plane, proving smooth and symplectic properties.

We consider billiard ball motion in a convex domain of a constant curvature surface influenced by the constant magnetic field. We prove that if the billiard map is totally integrable then the boundary curve is necessarily a circle. This result is a manifestation of the so-called Hopf rigidity phenomenon which was recen…

In this article we construct L--A representations of geodesic flows on quadrics and of billiard problems within ellipsoids in the pseudo--Euclidean spaces. A geometric interpretation of the integrability analogous to the classical Chasles theorem for symmetric ellipsoids is given. We also consider a generalization of t…

We prove that every compact plane billiard, bounded by a smooth curve, is insecure: there exist pairs of points $A,B$ such that no finite set of points can block all billiard trajectories from $A$ to $B$.

We consider a convex curve $γ$ lying on the Sphere or Hyperbolic plane. We study the problem of existence of polynomial in velocities integrals for Birkhoff billiard inside the domain bounded by $γ$. We extend the result by S. Bolotin (1992) and get new obstructions on polynomial integrability in terms of the dual curv…

This short expository note gives an elementary introduction to the study of dynamics on certain moduli spaces, and in particular the recent breakthrough result of Eskin, Mirzakhani, and Mohammadi. We also discuss the context and applications of this result, and connections to other areas of mathematics such as algebrai…

Researchers calculate complexity of billiard paths in regular polygons.

We provide lower bounds on the number of periodic Finsler billiard trajectories inside a quadratically convex smooth closed hypersurface $M$ in a $d$-dimensional Finsler space with possibly irreversible Finsler metric. An example of such a system is a billiard in a sufficiently weak magnetic field. The $r$-periodic Fin…

Paper finds optimal shapes for minimizing average lengths of billiard trajectories in specific polygons.

We study periodic wind-tree models, billiards in the plane endowed with $\mathbb{Z}^2$-periodically located identical connected symmetric right-angled obstacles. We show asymptotic formulas for the number of (isotopy classes of) closed billiard trajectories (up to $\mathbb{Z}^2$-translations) on the wind-tree billiard.…

In this paper the problem of estimating the number of periodical billiard trajectories is considered. The main result is the theorem on Morse theory for periodical billiard trajectories.

New proof for weak mixing in polygonal billiards.