Related papers: Shortest billiard trajectories
In this paper, we study the problem of computing Euclidean geodesic centers of a polygonal domain $\mathcal{P}$ with a total of $n$ vertices. We discover many interesting observations. We give a necessary condition for a point being a…
A convex body $R$ in the hyperbolic plane is reduced if any convex body $K\subset R$ has a smaller minimal width than $R$. We examine the area of a family of hyperbolic reduced $n$-gons, and prove that, within this family, regular $n$-gons…
A rectilinear polygon is a polygon whose edges are axis-aligned. Walking counterclockwise on the boundary of such a polygon yields a sequence of left turns and right turns. The number of left turns always equals the number of right turns…
We prove that there exists a residual set of (non-rational) polygons such the billiard flow is weakly mixing with respect to the Liouville measure (on the unit tangent bundle to the billiard). This follows, via a Baire category argument,…
We show that two-dimensional billiard systems are Turing complete, in the sense that the halting of any Turing machine with a given input is equivalent to a certain bounded trajectory in this system entering a specified open set. Billiards…
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…
Polygonal billiards exhibit a rich and complex dynamical behavior. In recent years polygonal billiards have attracted great attention due to their application in the understanding of anomalous transport, but also at the fundamental level,…
In this paper we give a lower bound for the least distortion embedding of a distance regular graph into Euclidean space. We use the lower bound for finding the least distortion for Hamming graphs, Johnson graphs, and all strongly regular…
An approach due to Wojtkovski [9], based on the Jacobi fields, is applied to study sets of 3-period orbits in billiards on hyperbolic plane and on two-dimensional sphere. It is found that the set of 3-period orbits in billiards on…
We present a link between billiards in convex plane domains and Hofer's geometry, an area of symplectic topology. For smooth strictly convex billiard tables, we prove that the Hofer distance between the corresponding billiard ball maps…
We give an algebraic characterization of when a $d$-dimensional periodic framework has no non-trivial, symmetry preserving, motion for any choice of periodicity lattice. Our condition is decidable, and we provide a simple algorithm that…
Following Riemann's idea, we prove the existence of a minimal disk in Euclidean space bounded by three lines in generic position and with three helicoidal ends of angles less than $\pi$. In the case of general angles, we prove that there…
The Euclidean TSP with neighborhoods (TSPN) problem seeks a shortest tour that visits a given collection of $n$ regions ({\em neighborhoods}). We present the first polynomial-time approximation scheme for TSPN for a set of regions given by…
Consider billiard dynamics in a strictly convex domain, and consider a trajectory that begins with the velocity vector making a small positive angle with the boundary. Lazutkin proved that in two dimensions, it is impossible for this angle…
Using Marden's Theorem from geometric theory of polynomials, we show that for every triangle there is a unique ellipse such that the triangle is a billiard trajectory within that ellipse. Since $3$-periodic trajectories of billiards within…
A general formula for the linearized Poincar\'e map of a billiard with a potential is derived. The stability of periodic orbits is given by the trace of a product of matrices describing the piecewise free motion between reflections and the…
The orbit closure of the unfolding of every rational right and isosceles triangle is computed and the asymptotic number of periodic billiard trajectories in these triangles is deduced. This follows by classifying all orbit closures of rank…
In a previous paper we defined a class of non-compact polygonal billiards, the infinite step billiards: to a given decreasing sequence of non-negative numbers $\{p_{n}$, there corresponds a table $\Bi := \bigcup_{n\in\N} [n,n+1] \times…
Traditionally, rotation numbers for toroidal billiard flows are defined as the limiting vectors of average displacements per time on trajectory segments. The billard trajectories, being curves, oftentimes getting very close to closed loops,…
Let $S$ be a set of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$. A Steiner convex partition is a tiling of ${\rm conv}(S)$ with empty convex bodies. For every integer $d$, we show that $S$ admits a Steiner convex partition with at most $\lceil…