Related papers: Track billiards
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…
We study the effect of edge diffraction on the semiclassical analysis of two dimensional quantum systems by deriving a trace formula which incorporates paths hitting any number of vertices embedded in an arbitrary potential. This formula is…
In this paper we consider the billiard flow in the exterior of several (at least three) balls in $\R^3$ with centres lying on a plane. We assume that the balls satisfy the no eclipse condition (H) and their radii are small compared to the…
We propose geometric tools that are suitable for studying the behavior of a billiard trajectory in a homogeneous force field. Two examples are considered: a vertical plane with an open top and with a parabolic or right angle boundary at the…
We consider billiards obtained by removing three strictly convex obstacles satisfying the non-eclipse condition on the plane. The restriction of the dynamics to the set of non-escaping orbits is conjugated to a subshift on three symbols…
We prove two results on the algebraic dynamics of billiards in generic algebraic curves of degree $d \geq 2$. First, the dynamical degree grows quadratically in $d$; second, the set of complex periodic points has measure 0, implying the…
An annular billiard is a dynamical system in which a particle moves freely in a disk except for elastic collisions with the boundary, and also a circular scatterer in the interior of the disk. We investigate stability properties of some…
N point particles move within a billiard table made of two circular cavities connected by a straight channel. The usual billiard dynamics is modified so that it remains deterministic, phase space volumes preserving and time reversal…
We investigate the regularity of invariant curves of rotation number $1/2$ for a special class of symplectic twist maps of the annulus, billiard maps. We construct strictly convex smooth tables close to the circle having singular (i.e. not…
We study polygonal billiards with reflection laws contracting the reflected angle towards the normal. It is shown that if a polygon does not have parallel sides facing each other, then the corresponding billiard map has finitely many…
The goal of this paper is an analysis of the geometry of billiards in ellipses, based on properties of confocal central conics. The extended sides of the billiards meet at points which are located on confocal ellipses and hyperbolas. They…
We consider the integrable dynamics of a Kepler billiard in the plane bounded by a branch of a conic section focused at the Kepler center. We show that in this case, for non-zero-energy orbits, the lines of consecutive second orbital foci…
We construct semi-infinite billiard domains which reverse the direction of most incoming particles. We prove that almost all particles will leave the open billiard domain after a finite number of reflections. Moreover, with high probability…
We consider a Kepler billiard with zero-energy in the plane defined inside a smooth closed connected simple curve which intersects all focused parabola at at most two points. {We show that} if has an invariant curve consisting of…
Rigid bodies collision maps in dimension two, under a natural set of physical requirements, can be classified into two types: the standard specular reflection map and a second which we call, after Broomhead and Gutkin, no-slip. This leads…
The billiard problem concerns a point particle moving freely in a region of the horizontal plane bounded by a closed curve $\Gamma$, and reflected at each impact with $\Gamma$. The region is called a `billiard', and the reflections are…
Lensed billiards are an extension of the notion of billiard dynamical systems obtained by adding a potential function of the form $C1_{\mathcal{A}}$, where $C$ is a real valued constant and $1_{\mathcal{A}}$ is the indicator function of an…
We study outer billiard systems around a class of circular sectors. For semi-discs, we prove the existence of elliptic islands occupying a positive proportion of the plane. Combined with known results, this shows the coexistence of…
I announce a solution of the conjecture about the measure of periodic points for planar billiard tables. The theorem says that if $\Om\subset\R^2$ is a compact domain with piecewise $C^3$ boundary, then the set of periodic orbits for the…
We investigate a three-parameter family of billiard tables with circular arc boundaries. These umbrella-shaped billiards may be viewed as a generalization of two-parameter moon and asymmetric lemon billiards, in which the latter classes…