Related papers: Polygonal billiards and "optical tori"
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…
In this paper, we show that the solution to a large class of "tiling" problems is given by a polynomial sequence of binomial type. More specifically, we show that the number of ways to place a fixed set of polyominos on an $n\times n$…
The problem of two interacting particles moving in a d-dimensional billiard is considered here. A suitable coordinate transformation leads to the problem of a particle in an unconventional hyperbilliard. A dynamical map can be readily…
We develop a framework for dealing with smooth approximations to billiards with corners in the two-dimensional setting. Let a polygonal trajectory in a billiard start and end up at the same billiard's corner point. We prove that smooth…
The Lax representations of the geodesic flow, the Jacobi-Rosochatius problem and its perturbations by means of separable polynomial potentials, on a ellipsoid are constructed. We prove complete integrability in the case of a generic…
Numerical computations suggest that each point on a certain optimized shape called the ideal trefoil is in contact with two other points. We consider sequences of such contact points, such that each point is in contact with its predecessor…
We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for periodic and for elliptic periodic trajectories of billiards within an ellipse in the Minkowski plane in terms of an underlining elliptic curve. We provide several examples of periodic and…
Billiard systems offer a simple setting to study regular and chaotic dynamics. Gravitational billiards are generalizations of these classical billiards which are amenable to both analytical and experimental investigations. Most previous…
We consider two nested billiards in $\mathbb R^d$, $d\geq3$, with $C^2$-smooth strictly convex boundaries. We prove that if the corresponding actions by reflections on the space of oriented lines commute, then the billiards are confocal…
We give a complete solution of the following problem: Find, classify and count the (classes of) periodic orbits on an equilateral triangle. We prove that Fagnano's period 3 orbit is the only periodic orbit with odd period. A periodic orbit…
In the present note, we uncover a remarkable connection between the length of periodic orbit of a classical particle enclosed in a class of 2-dimensional planar billiards and the energy of a quantum particle confined to move in an identical…
In this paper, outer billiards outside regular octagon are studied in details. We described all periodic points and their periods; also, we proved that the periodic points form a set of full measure outside the octagon and found an…
We study the Lawn Mowing Problem restricted to periodic billiard paths in the unit square. Given the combinatorial data of a trajectory, we determine the optimal covering radius, and identify the shortest path that covers the square for any…
Recently it was proved that every billiard trajectory inside a $C^3$ convex cone has a finite number of reflections. Here, by a $C^3$ convex cone, we mean a cone whose section with some hyperplane is a strictly convex closed $C^3$…
Trotter and Erd\"os found conditions for when a directed $m \times n$ grid graph on a torus is Hamiltonian. We consider the analogous graphs on a two-holed torus, and study their Hamiltonicity. We find an $\mathcal{O}(n^4)$ algorithm to…
In this paper we give a short survey of recent results on algebraic version of the Birkhoff conjecture for integrable billiards on surfaces of constant curvature. We also discuss integrable magnetic billiards. As a new application of the…
We present numerical and experimental results for the development of islands of stability in atom-optics billiards with soft walls. As the walls are soften, stable regions appear near singular periodic trajectories in converging (focusing)…
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 introduce the concepts of rotation numbers and rotation vectors for billiard maps. Our approach is based on the birkhoff ergodic theorem. We anticipate that it will be useful, in particular, for the purpose of establishing the…
Many classical facts in Riemannian geometry have their pseudo-Riemannian analogs. For instance, the spaces of space-like and time-like geodesics on a pseudo-Riemannian manifold have natural symplectic structures (just like in the Riemannian…