arXiv research

Study on billiard trajectories with fixed bounces.

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

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

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.

Billiard trajectories and geodesics are closely related geometrically.

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…

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…

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…

Polygon $p$-widths are found via billiard trajectories.

A lower bound for the number of 3-periodical billiard trajectories in a manifold embedded in Euclidean space is obtained.

We give lower bound on the number of periodic billiard trajectories inside a generic smooth strictly convex closed surface in 3-space: for odd n, there are at least 2(n-1) such trajectories. We apply a topological approach based on the calculation of cohomology of certain configuration spaces.

Billiard trajectories in curved spaces have predictable travel times.

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 billiard trajectories in a smooth convex body in $\mathbb R^d$ and estimate the number of distinct periodic trajectories that make exactly $p$ reflections per period at the boundary of the body. In the case of prime $p$ we obtain the lower bound $(d-2)(p-1)+2$, which is much better than the previous estimat…

We show that every knot can be realized as a billiard trajectory in a convex prism. This solves a conjecture of Jones and Przytycki.

Dan Reznik found, by computer experimentation, a number of conserved quantities associated with periodic billiard trajectories in ellipses. We prove some of his observations using a non-standard generating function for the billiard ball map. In this way, we also obtain some identities valid for all smooth convex billia…

In this paper, extending the works of Milena Radnović and Serge Tabachnikov, we establish conditions for two different non-symmetric norms to define the same billiard reflection law.

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. …

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.…

New system studies trapped light paths in Euclidean space.

We give lowed bounds on the number of periodic trajectories in strictly convex smooth billiards in $\R^{m+1}$ for $m\ge 3$. For plane billiards (when m=1) such bounds were obtained by G. Birkhoff in the 1920's. Our proof is based on topological methods of calculus of variations - equivariant Morse and Lusternik - Schir…

Characterizes billiard and quasigeodesic flows in polyhedral convex bodies.

We give topological lower bounds on the number of periodic and closed trajectories in strictly convex smooth billiards. We use variational reduction admitting a finite group of symmetries and apply topological approach based on equivariant Morse and Lusternik - Schnirelman theories. The paper continues results publishe…

Study on Poncelet polygons' centers and circumcenters in various geometries.

This paper proves integrability of Birkhoff billiards inside convex cones.

Study orbits in right triangles, deducing periodic billiard paths and classifying orbit closures.

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 …

The main result of this paper is, that for convex billiards in higher dimensions, in contrast with 2D case, for every point on the boundary and for every $n$ there always exist billiard trajectories developing conjugate points at the $n$-th collision with the boundary. We shall explain that this is a consequence of the…

Study of billiards in sub-Finsler geometry, including unusual orbits.

The paper shows caustics by reflection in projective Finsler metrics have at least four cusps.

Let $T\subset \R^{m+1}$ be a strictly convex domain bounded by a smooth hypersurface $X=\partial T$. In this paper we find lower bounds on the number of billiard trajectories in $T$ which have a prescribed intial point $A\in X$, a prescribed final point $B\in X$ and make a prescribed number $n$ of reflections at the bo…

The number of closed billiard trajectories in a rational-angled polygon grows quadratically in the length. This paper gives an analogue on K3 surfaces, by considering special Lagrangian tori. The analogue of the angle of a billiard trajectory is a point on a twistor sphere, and the number of directions admitting a spec…

New constructions show stable geodesics and figure-eights in convex hypersurfaces.

Let $D$ be any elliptic right cylinder. We prove that every type of knot can be realized as the trajectory of a ball in $D.$ This proves a conjecture of Lamm and gives a new proof of a conjecture of Jones and Przytycki. We use Jacobi's proof of Poncelet's theorem by means of elliptic functions.

Rigidity of travel times for convex obstacles in Riemannian manifolds is proven.

The paper provides uniform length estimates for trajectories on flat cone surfaces.

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

Survey of integrable billiard models and inequalities.

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.

It was proved in \cite{NS1} that obstacles $K$ in $\R^d$ that are finite disjoint unions of strictly convex domains with $C^3$ boundaries are uniquely determined by the travelling times of billiard trajectories in their exteriors and also by their so called scattering length spectra. However the case $d = 2$ is not pro…

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.

In the generalized Legendre approach, the equation describing an asymptotically locally Euclidean space of type $D_n$ is found to admit an algebraic formulation in terms of the group law on a Weierstrass cubic. This curve has the structure of a Cayley cubic for a pencil generated by two transversal plane conics, that i…

Method finds differential equations for integrable billiard tables.

We propose Symplectic Recurrent Neural Networks (SRNNs) as learning algorithms that capture the dynamics of physical systems from observed trajectories. An SRNN models the Hamiltonian function of the system by a neural network and furthermore leverages symplectic integration, multiple-step training and initial state op…

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