Related papers: Invisibility in billiards
We construct a subset $A$ of the unit disc with the following properties. (i) The set $A$ is the finite union of disjoint line segments. (ii) The shadow of $A$ is arbitrarily close to the shadow of the unit disc in "most" directions. (iii)…
An elliptical invisible cloak is proposed using a coordinate transformation in the elliptical-cylindrical coordinate system, which crushes the cloaked object to a line segment instead of a point. The elliptical cloak is reduced to a…
We study a class of planar billiards having the remarkable property that their phase space consists up to a set of zero measure of two invariant sets formed by orbits moving in opposite directions. The tables of these billiards are tubular…
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…
In this experimental work we study billiard trajectories in triangular pyramids and try to establish conditions that guarantee the existence (or absence) of 4-cycles (there can be not more, than three of them). We formulate conjectures and…
The notion of a rough two-dimensional (convex) body is introduced, and to each rough body there is assigned a measure on $\TTT^3$ describing billiard scattering on the body. The main result is characterization of the set of measures…
The force experienced by a mirror moving in vacuum vanishes in the case of uniform velocity or uniform acceleration, as a consequence of spatial symmetries of vacuum. These symmetries do not subsist in a thermal field. We give a general…
Billiard systems, broadly speaking, may be regarded as models of mechanical systems in which rigid parts interact through elastic impulsive (collision) forces. When it is desired or necessary to account for linear/angular momentum exchange…
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…
Students in introductory physics courses struggle to understand virtual image formation by a plane mirror and the proper construction of ray diagrams. This difficulty, if not sufficiently addressed, results in further problems throughout…
We show that for a rational polygonal billiard, the set of pairs of points that do not illuminate each other (not connected by a billiard trajectory) is finite, and use the same method to extend the results of Leli\`evre, Monteil and Weiss,…
The illumination problem is a popular topic in recreational mathematics: In a mirrored room, is every region illuminable from every point in the region? So-called \enquote{unilluminable rooms} are related to \enquote{trapped sets} in…
We investigate the dynamics of no-slip billiards, a model in which small rotating disks may exchange linear and angular momentum at collisions with the boundary. We give new results on periodicity and boundedness of orbits which suggest…
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…
We establish a connection between capillary floating in neutral equilibrium and the billiard ball problem. This allows us to reduce the question of floating in neutral equilibrium at any orientation with a prescribed contact angle for…
Given a random map (T_1, T_2, T_3, T_4, p_1, p_2, p_3, p_4), we define a random billiard map on a surface of constant curvature (Euclidean plane, hyperbolic plane, or the sphere). The Liouville measure is invariant for this billiard map.…
Retroreflectors are optical devices that reverse the direction of incident beams of light. Here we present a collection of billiard type retroreflectors consisting of four objects; three of them are asymptotically perfect retroreflectors,…
Following a recent paper by Baryshnikov and Zharnitskii, we consider outer billiards in the plane possessing invariant curves consisting of periodic orbits. We prove the existence and abundance of such tables using tools from sub-Riemannian…
The eigenmirror problem asks: ``When does the reflection of a surface in a curved mirror appear undistorted to an observer?'' We call such a surface an {\em eigensurface} and the corresponding mirror an {\em eigenmirror}. The data for an…
In this work the confined domains for a point-like particle propagating within the boundary of an ideally reflecting paraboloid mirror are derived. Thereby it is proven that all consecutive flight parabola foci points lie on the surface of…