Related papers: Blocking: New examples and properties of products
Let x and y be points in a billiard table M that is bounded by a curve sigma. We assume that sigma is a simple closed C^r curve with positive curvature, where r is at least 2. A subset B of M\{x,y} is called a blocking set for the pair…
A pair of points in a riemannian manifold makes a secure configuration if the totality of geodesics connecting them can be blocked by a finite set. The manifold is secure if every configuration is secure. We investigate the security of…
A pair of points in a riemannian manifold $M$ is secure if the geodesics between the points can be blocked by a finite number of point obstacles; otherwise the pair of points is insecure. A manifold is secure if all pairs of points in $M$…
A Riemannian manifold is said to be uniformly secure if there is a finite number $s$ such that all geodesics connecting an arbitrary pair of points in the manifold can be blocked by $s$ point obstacles. We prove that the number of geodesics…
Let $G$ be a connected Lie group acting locally simply transitively on a manifold $M$. By connecting curves in $M$ we mean the orbits of one-parameter subgroups of $G$. To block a pair of points $m_1,m_2\in M$ is to find a finite set…
A riemannian manifold is secure if the geodesics between any pair of points in the manifold can be blocked by a finite number of point obstacles. Compact, flat manifolds are secure. A standing conjecture says that these are the only secure,…
The blocking number of a manifold is the minimal number of points needed to block out lights between any two given points in the manifold. It has been conjectured that if the blocking number of a manifold is finite, then the manifold must…
The configuration manifold $M$ of a mechanical system consisting of two unconstrained rigid bodies in $\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\geq 1$, is a manifold with boundary (typically with singularities.) A complete description of the system requires…
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 prove three theorems giving extremal bounds on the incidence structures determined by subsets of the points and blocks of a balanced incomplete block design (BIBD). These results generalize and strengthen known bounds on the number of…
In diverse physical systems stable oscillatory solutions devolve into more complicated dynamical behaviour through border-collision bifurcations. Mathematically these occur when a stable fixed point of a piecewise-smooth map collides with a…
This paper concerns piecewise-smooth maps on $\mathbb{R}^d$ that are continuous but not differentiable on switching manifolds (where the functional form of the map changes). The stability of fixed points on switching manifolds is…
Systems of pinned billiard balls serve as simplified models of collisions, where all particles remain fixed in their positions while their (pseudo-)velocities evolve in accordance with the laws of conservation of energy and momentum. For…
Systems that are not smooth can undergo bifurcations that are forbidden in smooth systems. We review some of the phenomena that can occur for piecewise-smooth, continuous maps and flows when a fixed point or an equilibrium collides with a…
The collision of a fixed point with a switching manifold (or border) in a piecewise-smooth map can create many different types of invariant sets. This paper explores two techniques that, combined, establish a chaotic attractor is created in…
A planar polygonal billiard $\P$ is said to have the finite blocking property if for every pair $(O,A)$ of points in $\P$ there exists a finite number of ``blocking'' points $B_1, ..., B_n$ such that every billiard trajectory from $O$ to…
If (M,g) is a Riemannian manifold and x,y are points in M, then a subset P of M\{x,y} is said to be a blocking set for (x,y) if every geodesic from x to y passes through a point of P. If no pair (x,y) in M X M has a finite blocking set,…
We prove homological stability for sequences of "oriented configuration spaces" as the number of points in the configuration goes to infinity. These are spaces of configurations of n points in a connected manifold M of dimension at least 2…
Given a triangulated category $\mathcal{C}$, we construct a partial compactification, denoted $\mathcal{A}\mathrm{Stab}(\mathcal{C})$, of the quotient of its stability manifold by $\mathbb{C}$. The purpose of…
We give an example of a symplectic manifold with a stable hypersurface such that nearby hypersurfaces are typically unstable.