English

On conjugacy of convex billiards

Dynamical Systems 2012-03-07 v1 Symplectic Geometry

Abstract

Given a strictly convex domain Ω\Omega in R2\R^2, there is a natural way to define a billiard map in it: a rectilinear path hitting the boundary reflects so that the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence. In this paper we answer a relatively old question of Guillemin. We show that if two billiard maps are C1,αC^{1,\alpha}-conjugate near the boundary, for some α>1/2\alpha > 1/2, then the corresponding domains are similar, i.e. they can be obtained one from the other by a rescaling and an isometry. As an application, we prove a conditional version of Birkhoff conjecture on the integrability of planar billiards and show that the original conjecture is equivalent to what we call an "Extension problem". Quite interestingly, our result and a positive solution to this extension problem would provide an answer to a closely related question in spectral theory: if the marked length spectra of two domains are the same, is it true that they are isometric?

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1203.1274,
  title  = {On conjugacy of convex billiards},
  author = {Vadim Kaloshin and Alfonso Sorrentino},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1203.1274},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

23 pages, 3 figures