Density of a thin film billiard reflection pseudogroup in a Hamiltonian symplectomorphism pseudogroup

Abstract

Reflections from hypersurfaces act by symplectomorphisms on the space of oriented lines with respect to the canonical symplectic form. We consider an arbitrary C∞-smooth hypersurface γ ⊂ ℝn+1 that is either a global strictly convex closed hypersurface, or a germ of a hypersurface. We deal with the pseudogroup generated by compositional ratios of reflections from γ and of reflections from its small deformations. In the case when γ is a global convex hypersurface, we show that the C∞-closure of the latter pseudogroup contains the pseudogroup of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms between domains in the phase cylinder: the space of oriented lines intersecting γ transversally. We prove an analogous local result in the case when γ is a germ. The derivatives of the above compositional differences in the deformation parameter are Hamiltonian vector fields calculated by Ron Perline. To prove the main results, we find the Lie algebra generated by them and prove its C∞-density in the Lie algebra of Hamiltonian vector fields. We also prove analogues of the above results for hypersurfaces in Riemannian manifolds.