Related papers: Every knot is a billiard knot
We give an optical physicist view of the problem of the trajectories in a polygonal billiard using only basic facts of Optics and the theory of functions of a complex variable. This approach allow us to stablish a certain correspondence…
We prove that the billiard claimed to be a possible counterexample to the Birkhoff-Poritsky conjecture is actually not a counterexample. We also show that for a billiard in a table obtained by the string construction over any convex…
We show that the complexity of the billiard in a typical polygon grows cubically and the number of saddle connections grows quadratically along certain subsequences. It is known that the set of points whose first n-bounces hits the same…
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 $K\subset \mathbb{R}^d$ has the property that the tangent cone of every non-smooth…
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 give a new proof for the directional billiard complexity in the cube, which was conjectured in \cite{Ra} and proven in \cite{Ar.Ma.Sh.Ta}. Our technique gives us a similar theorem for some rational polyhedra.
In this paper we study the ergodic properties of mathematical billiards describing the uniform motion of a point in a flat torus from which finitely many, pairwise disjoint, tubular neighborhoods of translated subtori (the so called…
One of the most interesting problems in the theory of Birkhoff billiards is the problem of integrability. In all known examples of integrable billiards, the billiard tables are either conics, quadrics (closed ellipsoids as well as unclosed…
In this paper we prove that a totally integrable strictly-convex symplectic billiard table, whose boundary has everywhere strictly positive curvature, must be an ellipse. The proof, inspired by the analogous result of Bialy for Birkhoff…
In this paper we prove the Birkhoff-Poritsky conjecture for centrally-symmetric $C^2$-smooth convex planar billiards. We assume that the domain $\mathcal A$ between the invariant curve of $4$-periodic orbits and the boundary of the phase…
A caustic of a strictly convex planar bounded billiard is a smooth curve whose tangent lines are reflected from the billiard boundary to its tangent lines. The famous Birkhoff Conjecture states that if the billiard boundary has an inner…
For every quadrilateral sufficiently close to a rectangle, we shall show that it possess a periodic billiard path. This is an REU work done at ICERM in Summer 2012.
We prove that if a polygon admits a periodic billiard orbit satisfying a certain combinatorial criterion, then there are paths of polygons in parameter space for which every polygon in the path admits a periodic billiard orbit of the same…
Extending upon our previous work, we verify the Jones Unknot Conjecture for all knots up to $24$ crossings. We describe the method of our approach and analyze the growth of the computational complexity of its different components.
Mathematical billiards is much like the real game: a point mass, representing the ball, rolls in a straight line on a (perfectly friction-less) table, striking the sides according to the law of reflection. A billiard trajectory is then…
In this paper we investigate some generic properties of a billiard system on a convex table. We show that generically, every hyperbolic periodic point admits some homoclinic orbit.
We discuss a recent result by C. Culter: every polygonal outer billiard has a periodic trajectory.
We rigorously investigate closed Minkowski/Finsler billiard trajectories on $n$-dimensional convex bodies. We outline the central properties in comparison and differentiation from the Euclidean special case and establish two main results…
There is a map, defined and studied by Jones, from Thompson's group $F$ to knots. Jones proved that every knot is in the image of this map -- that is, that every knot can be seen as the "knot closure" of a Thompson group element. We…
We deduce a recent theorem by R. Schwartz on the structure of the so-called Poncelet grid from complete integrability of the billiard in an ellipse