Billiard Trajectories Research Articles

Lens Rigidity in Scattering by Unions of Strictly Convex Bodies in R^2

It was proved in [L. Noakes and L. Stoyanov, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc., 143 (2015), pp. 3879-3893] that obstacles K in R^d that are finite disjoint unions of strictly convex domains with C^3 boundaries are uniquely determined by the traveling times of billiard trajectories in their exteriors and also by their so-called scattering length spectra. However, the case d = 2 is not covered by that article. In the present paper we give a separate and different proof of this result for the case when d = 2.

Can the Elliptic Billiard Still Surprise Us?

Can any secrets still be shed by that much studied, uniquely integrable, Elliptic Billiard? Starting by examining the family of 3-periodic trajectories and the loci of their Triangular Centers, one obtains a beautiful and variegated gallery of curves: ellipses, quartics, sextics, circles, and even a stationary point. Secondly, one notices this family conserves an intriguing ratio: Inradius-to-Circumradius. In turn this implies three conservation corollaries: (i) the sum of bounce angle cosines, (ii) the product of excentral cosines, and (iii) the ratio of excentral-to-orbit areas. Monge's Orthoptic Circle's close relation to 4-periodic Billiard trajectories is well-known. Its geometry provided clues with which to generalize 3-periodic invariants to trajectories of an arbitrary number of edges. This was quite unexpected. Indeed, the Elliptic Billiard did surprise us!

Periodic Billiards Within Conics in the Minkowski Plane and Akhiezer Polynomials

We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for periodic and for elliptic periodic trajectories of billiards within an ellipse in the Minkowski plane in terms of an underlining elliptic curve. We provide several examples of periodic and elliptic periodic trajectories with small periods. We observe a relationship between Cayley-type conditions and discriminantly separable and factorizable polynomials. Equivalent conditions for periodicity and elliptic periodicity are derived in terms of polynomial-functional equations as well. The corresponding polynomials are related to the classical extremal polynomials. In particular, the light-like periodic trajectories are related to the classical Chebyshev polynomials. Similarities and differences with respect to the previously studied Euclidean case are highlighted.

Periodic Ellipsoidal Billiard Trajectories and Extremal Polynomials

A comprehensive study of periodic trajectories of billiards within ellipsoids in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space is presented. The novelty of the approach is based on a relationship established between periodic billiard trajectories and extremal polynomials on the systems of $d$ intervals on the real line. By leveraging deep, but yet not widely known results of the Krein-Levin-Nudelman theory of generalized Chebyshev polynomials, fundamental properties of billiard dynamics are proven for any $d$, viz., that the sequences of winding numbers are monotonic. By employing the potential theory we prove the injectivity of the frequency map. As a byproduct, for $d=2$ a new proof of the monotonicity of the rotation number is obtained. The case study of trajectories of small periods $T$, $d\le T\le 2d$ is given. In particular, it is proven that all $d$-periodic trajectories are contained in a coordinate-hyperplane and that for a given ellipsoid, there is a unique set of caustics which generates $d+1$-periodic trajectories. A complete catalog of billiard trajectories with small periods is provided for $d=3$.

Quantitative error term in the counting problem on Veech wind-tree models

We study periodic wind-tree models, billiards in the plane endowed with $\mathbb{Z}^2$-periodically located identical connected symmetric right-angled obstacles. We exhibit effective asymptotic formulas for the number of (isotopy classes of) periodic billiard trajectories (up to $\mathbb{Z}^2$-translations) on Veech wind-tree billiards, that is, wind-tree billiards whose underlying compact translation surfaces are Veech surfaces. We show that the error term depends on spectral properties of the Veech group and give explicit estimates in the case when obstacles are squares of side length $1/2$.

Equidistribution of saddle connections on translation surfaces

Fix a translation surface $ X $, and consider the measures on $ X $ coming from averaging the uniform measures on all the saddle connections of length at most $ R $. Then, as $ R\to\infty $, the weak limit of these measures exists and is equal to the area measure on $ X $ coming from the flat metric. This implies that, on a rational-angled billiard table, the billiard trajectories that start and end at a corner of the table are equidistributed on the table. We also show that any weak limit of a subsequence of the counting measures on $ S^1 $ given by the angles of all saddle connections of length at most $ R_n $, as $ R_n\to\infty $, is in the Lebesgue measure class. The proof of the equidistribution result uses the angle result, together with the theorem of Kerckhoff-Masur-Smillie that the directional flow on a surface is uniquely ergodic in almost every direction.

Caustics of Poncelet Polygons and Classical Extremal Polynomials

A comprehensive analysis of periodic trajectories of billiards within ellipses in the Euclidean plane is presented. The novelty of the approach is based on a relationship recently established by the authors between periodic billiard trajectories and extremal polynomials on the systems of d intervals on the real line and ellipsoidal billiards in d-dimensional space. Even in the planar case systematically studied in the present paper, it leads to new results in characterizing n periodic trajectories vs. so-called n elliptic periodic trajectories, which are n-periodic in elliptical coordinates. The characterizations are done both in terms of the underlying elliptic curve and divisors on it and in terms of polynomial functional equations, like Pell’s equation. This new approach also sheds light on some classical results. In particular, we connect the search for caustics which generate periodic trajectories with three classical classes of extremal polynomials on two intervals, introduced by Zolotarev and Akhiezer. The main classifying tool are winding numbers, for which we provide several interpretations, including one in terms of numbers of points of alternance of extremal polynomials. The latter implies important inequality between the winding numbers, which, as a consequence, provides another proof of monotonicity of rotation numbers. A complete catalog of billiard trajectories with small periods is provided for n = 3, 4, 5, 6 along with an effective search for caustics. As a byproduct, an intriguing connection between Cayley-type conditions and discriminantly separable polynomials has been observed for all those small periods.

Minimizing length of billiard trajectories in hyperbolic polygons

Closed billiard trajectories in a polygon in the hyperbolic plane can be coded by the order in which they hit the sides of the polygon. In this paper, we consider the average length of cyclically related closed billiard trajectories in ideal hyperbolic polygons and prove the conjecture that this average length is minimized for regular hyperbolic polygons. The proof uses a strict convexity property of the geodesic length function in Teichmüller space with respect to the Weil–Petersson metric, a fundamental result established by Wolpert.

Decay of the Boltzmann Equation with the Specular Boundary Condition in Non-convex Cylindrical Domains

A basic question about the existence and stability of the Boltzmann equation in general non-convex domain with the specular reflection boundary condition has been widely open. In this paper, we consider cylindrical domains whose cross sections are general non-convex analytic planar domain. We establish the global-wellposedness and asymptotic stability of the Boltzmann equation with the specular reflection boundary condition in such domains. Our method consists of sharp classification of billiard trajectories which bounce infinitely many times or hit the boundary tangentially at some moment, and a delicate construction of an $\e$-tubular neighborhood of such trajectories. Analyticity of the boundary is crucially used. Away from such $\e$-tubular neighborhood, we control the number of bounces of trajectories and its' distance from singular sets in a uniform fashion. The worst case, sticky grazing set, can be excluded by cutting off small portion of the temporal integration. Finally we apply a method of \cite{KimLee} by the authors and achieve a pointwise estimate of the Boltzmann solutions.

Equality Cases in Viterbo’s Conjecture and Isoperimetric Billiard Inequalities

Abstract We apply the billiard technique to deduce some results on Viterbo’s conjectured inequality between the volume of a convex body and its symplectic capacity. We show that the product of a permutohedron and a simplex (properly related to each other) delivers equality in Viterbo’s conjecture. Using this result as well as previously known equality cases, we prove some special cases of Viterbo’s conjecture and interpret them as isoperimetric-like inequalities for billiard trajectories.

Singular and Calabi–Yau varieties linked with billiard trajectories and diffusion operators

The images under a certain map of periodic billiard trajectories inside the fundamental region of the affine Weyl group of the root system $$A_{2}$$ are closed curves and configurations of lines described by a one-parameter family of polynomials. The polynomials are related with eigenvectors of symmetric diffusion operators connected with the deltoid. Several associated singular varieties and Calabi–Yau threefolds defined over the rationals are constructed.

Counting problem on wind-tree models

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. We also compute explicitly the associated Siegel-Veech constant for generic wind-tree billiards depending on the number of corners on the obstacle.

Splitting of separatrices, scattering maps, and energy growth for a billiard inside a time-dependent symmetric domain close to an ellipse

We study billiard dynamics inside an ellipse for which the axes lengths are changed periodically in time and an -small quartic polynomial deformation is added to the boundary. In this situation the energy of the particle in the billiard is no longer conserved. We show a Fermi acceleration in such system: there exists a billiard trajectory on which the energy tends to infinity. The construction is based on the analysis of dynamics in the phase space near a homoclinic intersection of the stable and unstable manifolds of the normally hyperbolic invariant cylinder Λ, parameterised by the energy and time, that corresponds to the motion along the major axis of the ellipse. The proof depends on the reduction of the billiard map near the homoclinic channel to an iterated function system comprised by the shifts along two Hamiltonian flows defined on Λ. The two flows approximate the so-called inner and scattering maps, which are basic tools that arise in the studies of the Arnold diffusion; the scattering maps defined by the projection along the strong stable and strong unstable foliations Wss,uu of the stable and unstable invariant manifolds at the homoclinic points. Melnikov type calculations imply that the behaviour of the scattering map in this problem is quite unusual: it is only defined on a small subset of Λ that shrinks, in the large energy limit, to a set of parallel lines t = const as .

УСТОЙЧИВОСТЬ ПЕРИОДИЧЕСКИХ БИЛЬЯРДНЫХ ТРАЕКТОРИЙ В ТРЕУГОЛЬНИКЕ

УСТОЙЧИВОСТЬ ПЕРИОДИЧЕСКИХ БИЛЬЯРДНЫХ ТРАЕКТОРИЙ В ТРЕУГОЛЬНИКЕ

On general rotation sets of open billiards

We study the general rotation sets of open billiards in $${\mathbb {R}}^2$$ for the observable given by the starting point of a given billiard trajectory. We prove that, for a class of open billiards, the general rotation set is equal to the polygon formed by the midpoints of the segments connecting the centers of the obstacles. Moreover, we provide an example to show that such a result may not hold in general.

The Neumann Isospectral Problem for Trapezoids

We show that trapezoids with identical Neumann spectra are congruent up to rigid motions of the plane. The proof is based on heat trace invariants and some new wave trace invariants associated to certain diffractive billiard trajectories. The reason we can only treat the Neumann case is that the wave trace is "more singular" for the Neumann case compared to the Dirichlet case. This is a new observation which is interesting on its own.

Santalo's formula and stability of trapping sets of positive measure

Billiard trajectories (broken generalised geodesics) are considered in the exterior of an obstacle K with smooth boundary on an arbitrary Riemannian manifold. We prove a generalisation of the well-known Santalo's formula. As a consequence, it is established that if the set of trapped points has positive measure, then for all sufficiently small smooth perturbations of the boundary of K the set of trapped points for the new obstacle obtained in this way also has positive measure. More generally the measure of the set of trapped points depends continuously on perturbations of the obstacle K. Some consequences are derived in the case of scattering by an obstacle K in IRn. For example, it is shown that, for a large class of obstacles K, the volume of K is uniquely determined by the average travelling times of scattering rays in the exterior of K.

Connected components of meanders: Ⅰ. bi-rainbow meanders

Closed meanders are planar configurations of one or several disjoint closed Jordan curves intersecting a given line transversely. They arise as shooting curves of parabolic PDEs in one space dimension, as trajectories of Cartesian billiards, and as representations of elements of Temperley-Lieb algebras.Given the configuration of intersections, for example as a permutation or an arc collection, the number of Jordan curves is unknown. We address this question in the special case of bi-rainbow meanders, which are given as non-branched families (rainbows) of nested arcs. Easily obtainable results for small bi-rainbow meanders containing at most four families in total (lower and upper rainbow families) suggest an expression of the number of curves by the greatest common divisor (gcd) of polynomials in the sizes of the rainbow families.We prove however, that this is not the case.On the other hand, we provide a complexity analysis of nose-retraction algorithms. They determine the number of connected components of arbitrary bi-rainbow meanders in logarithmic time. In fact, the nose-retraction algorithms resemble the Euclidean algorithm.Looking for a closed formula of the number of connected components, the nose-retraction algorithm is as good as a gcd-formula and therefore as good as we can possibly expect.

Degenerate billiards in celestial mechanics

In an ordinary billiard trajectories of a Hamiltonian system are elastically reflected after a collision with a hypersurface (scatterer). If the scatterer is a submanifold of codimension more than one, we say that the billiard is degenerate. Degenerate billiards appear as limits of systems with singularities in celestial mechanics. We prove the existence of trajectories of such systems shadowing trajectories of the corresponding degenerate billiards. This research is motivated by the problem of second species solutions of Poincar\'e.

Billiards in convex bodies with acute angles

In this paper we investigate the existence of closed billiard trajectories in not necessarily smooth convex bodies. In particular, we show that if a body K ⊂ Rd has the property that the tangent cone of every non-smooth point q ∉ ∂K is acute (in a certain sense), then there is a closed billiard trajectory in K.